


Strategic Alliances

by Wissixwe



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Ben Solo backstory, Complete, F/M, Force-Sensitive Leia Organa, Gen, Jakku, Kylo Ren/Luke battle, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Reylo - Freeform, Sith, Strategic Alliances, Violence, dagobah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-02
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-05 19:55:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 40
Words: 168,310
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6720706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wissixwe/pseuds/Wissixwe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Picking up where the movie left off, a soul-shattered Kylo Ren pursues Luke Skywalker and Rey as Snoke continues his Machiavellian manipulations of Hux and the First Order. Rey persuades a reluctant Luke to train her, but her training is interrupted when Kylo Ren finds them - and Luke and Kylo Ren face off at last! Leia's connection to the Force is explored as she becomes involved with a mysterious Sith, Dar Noaa, who has discovered that there is far more at stake than just the balance of the Force. Finn's journey leads him toward a destiny he never imagined and might not be ready for, while  Rey faces a life-altering challenge.  </p><p>And Luke Skywalker must rise from the ashes of his past or hope is lost for everyone...</p><p>Canon for this story is Star Wars:"The Force Awakens" by Alan Dean Foster, "Bloodline" by Claudia Gray;  "Book of Sith" by Daniel Wallace & Lucasfilm; Aftermath: "Life Debt" by Chuck Wendig;  02/22/17: "Empire's End" by Chuck Wendig (released after I finished my story, but I did not violate canon. )<br/>******Officially AU! 12/15/2017******</p><p>The rest is pure unabashed Fanwank -</p><p>                            ******      For Carrie.      ******</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

 

-1-                                                                                          

 

 

The galaxy is in chaos. Only hours have passed since the New Order brought the Republic down with one devastating blow, and those who survived have fled for their lives in all directions at once. The Resistance succeeded in destroying the Starkiller weapon after the fact, but stands powerless to render assistance. With allies and resources obliterated, the Resistance must now dedicate itself to protecting only two critical missions – finding Luke Skywalker and evacuating their base as soon as possible. 

Using the map recreated from uniting the pieces found in R2D2 and BB8, the Millennium Falcon has departed, carrying Rey, R2D2 and Chewbacca to locate Luke Skywalker before the New Order does. General Leia Organa, BB8, Finn, Poe and the Resistance fighters race to salvage whatever they can and flee before the New Order finds them, too.

But the scale of the disaster is so enormous that even the New Order has found itself forced to set new priorities.

_Except for one._

 

 **********************

 

The Destroyer Finalizer drifted idly; its gravity anchor to Starkiller Base no longer existed. The ship was relatively undamaged in the disaster, but until more information came in and the last of his personnel were accounted for, General Hux had little to do but wait and watch as a black shuttle entered the Finalizer’s stern hanger bay and eased itself onto the hanger floor. He felt a rush of anticipation as the shuttle doors parted and the ramp slid into place.

“General Hux?” A young officer spoiled the moment. ”You have been commanded to the Assembly Room, Sir.”

The words unsettled the general’s mind. Surely he was not being held accountable for this mess; that honor fell to another. Perhaps the Supreme Leader wanted him to be a witness. This was no time for speculation, though, so Hux turned his attention from the shuttle and made the long walk through the Finalizer’s passageways to the Assembly Room to hear whatever duties were required of him now.

On arriving there, Hux fully expected to see Supreme Leader Snoke sitting on the grand throne, but when the doors slid open to admit him, the seat was empty. There was a slight hissing sound as the doors slid closed again behind him, and then he was surrounded by eerie silence. He walked to his assigned position and stood, waiting, grateful to have a few minutes to compose himself for what was going to be a memorable event in one way or another. He was not afraid for himself, or for his staff, because there was one - and only one - individual that would bear the blame for the loss of Starkiller Base.

Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren; who right now was walking the entire length of the Finalizer, coming to this very room, unassisted in any way that mattered, escorted by a squad of Stormtroopers to make sure he did not take his own life along the way.  Starkiller Base was gone; Hux’s men, his resources, the plans for his final glorious rise to real power, were now nothing but chunks of dead rock drifting across space. The Supreme Leader had used the words “complete his training” when ordering the Knight’s retrieval, but Hux was uninterested in knowing what those words meant. 

He wanted Ren dead. Period.

A sudden flash of blue light on the throne told Hux that Supreme Leader had finally appeared, so he slipped his hands behind his back and grasped them together tightly, straightening himself to full attention.

“General Hux,” Snoke wasted no time on formalities, “report.”

“We have not,” Hux spoke slowly, calmly, because bad news had to be delivered carefully, “as yet, located the Millennium Falcon or the resistance base. There is so much traffic in space that we’ve captured only a few resistance ships and none of any importance. News of our strike on the Republic is sweeping from system to system, creating panic literally everywhere, but the Order Information Bureau decided that the best way to deal with the Starkiller disaster was to suppress the news. Every sentient being in every system thinks they will be next, and is trying to run.  One of our scans surpassed sixteen billion vessels in transit, and that’s just in the local …”

“You are trying my patience,” Snoke growled.

“We are fully deployed, Supreme Leader,” Hux stressed sincerity in his words, “but we are not equipped to handle a situation like this on such a scale. The more we try…”

“Try harder.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader,” Hux breathed the words softly, humbly, almost pleadingly,” we shall.”

Silence.

Long minutes passed, but Hux kept his head down and waited.

“You were ordered,” Snoke finally broke the stillness, “to bring Kylo Ren to me. Where is he?”

“He is on his way, Supreme Leader.” Relieved that the subject had changed to something he actually had under control, Hux couldn’t hide a certain smug tone to the words. “He refused medical attention and insisted that he attend you under his own power.”

“You’re making an example of him.”

“No more than is his due.”

When Snoke did not reply to such a leading comment, Hux decided to risk pressing forward. ”I have spoken before about the risks of keeping a Skywalker - under any name – alive. See what has come to pass; Starkiller Base is *gone*, the weapon is *gone*…”

“The base,” Snoke cut him off sharply, “has served its purpose.”

Hearing his work, his mechanical masterpiece, being dismissed so quickly irritated Hux, but he knew better than to express it. He remained silent and waited on his leader’s words.

“Locating the Millennium Falcon is now your personal assignment.” Snoke continued, his voice cool and threatening at the same time, “Find that ship. Take whatever resources you need, but get the job done.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

“And summon the Knights of Ren. I have a mission for them.”

“Yes.” Hux had hoped he’d hear this; the Knights were being called to select a new Kylo to replace the not-quite-yet-dead one. “I will send for them immediately.”

“And when the Knights of Ren arrive, you will bring them *directly* to me. Is that understood?”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

“Now,” Snoke waved a hand of dismissal,” resume your duties and await my commands.”

At that moment, the great doors to the Assembly Room slid open once again, and Hux turned back toward them, eager to get his first look at the fallen Knight. Light from the outside hallway spilled in, revealing a tall, slender silhouette walking slowly, unsteadily, into the chamber. The stormtroopers behind him stopped at the doorway, then disappeared as the doors closed again, leaving the figure in deep shadow to finish his walk alone. `

When the figure emerged from the shadow, Hux held his breath in shocked surprise. His men had described the damage, but even so, Hux had never imagined that anyone existed who was capable of doing what he now saw.

Kylo Ren, *shredded*.

There was really no other word for it; the Knight’s robes flapped about his tall, lean body like the remnants of an ancient flag on a pole. Hux knew about Ren’s body wounds, but blood on black in the dim light of the Assembly Room was impossible to see. 

That face was another story.

The helmet was gone, and except for a raging red gash where a lightsaber had struck, not hard enough to slice bone, but deep enough to scar, the battered Knight’s face was deathly pale. He had tucked his hands up tightly under his armpits to steady himself, but his whole body was trembling as if he was going to collapse any time now. Surely, it would displease leader Snoke greatly if this disgraced servant was not awake and aware for his own execution. Hux looked away from Ren, up towards the throne and Supreme Leader, who was now focused solely on Ren.

The expression on Snoke’s face was not anger, though; it was *anticipation*. Hideously dark against that ethereal disfigured face, the bloodlust in Snoke’s eyes terrified Hux. For a split second, he almost felt pity for Ren, but that was quizckly replaced by a more important, much more personal emotion - an intense need to escape. Kylo Ren absolutely deserved whatever he was about to experience, but that was something Hux had absolutely no desire to witness.

“General Hux,” Snoke said,” Leave us.”

Hux made haste. He had to pass Ren on the way out, and as he did, he took what he was sure was one last look at the Knight and instantly regretted it. Ren’s eyes were vacant; there was no spark of recognition that might have given Hux some satisfaction.

There was only the empty stare of someone who was already dead. 

 

************************************

 

“General? General Organa? ”

Hearing her name spoken roused Leia Organa from her thoughts. She had been sitting on the bridge of the resistance transport ship for hours now, monitoring transmissions for any word of how the rest of her people were doing. Reports had come few and far between; a few ships lost here, a few more there, but mostly the transmissions simply did not come at all.  

The silence perplexed her. She’d expected their dispersion to be a costly one; that the First Order would be at every system waiting for them, but that had not come to pass. Either they were enjoying remarkably good luck or the New Order was not putting its resources into pursuing them. Was it possible that not even the First Order had anticipated the full impact of the Starkiller weapon once they’d actually used it, and now they found themselves unable to cope with the tidal wave of movement throughout the galaxy as the news spread, filling space with billions of ships, every one of which would ping scanners at the same time and overload them? The resistance fleet was composed for the most part of small to mid-sized starcraft that could easily merge into the stampede and become invisible; so, by annihilating the Republic, the First Order had unintentionally aided the resistance in their escape.

“Yes,” Leia looked at the young man who was waiting for her reply, “What is it?”

“I’m here to relieve you, General.”

“Of course.” Leia rose from the chair, stepped aside, and started for the exit. “I’ll be in Medical.”

“Yes.” The young man was reaching for the headset, barely paying attention. Then he remembered himself and added one word: “General.”

There had been no need for Leia to say anything about her destination; everybody knew where she could be found when not on the bridge. She’d be in a chair, sitting silently beside the bed of the newcomer among them named Finn. They’d put Finn into a deep coma for the surgeries, but he had not awakened as expected, and the General was keeping vigil there. She brushed off any suggestions that she needed to rest herself as well, and after the first few failed attempts, the ship’s medical personnel stopped trying.  There was simply was no one on board who could order General Leia Organa to rest.

The Midship passageway was narrow and busy. Leia nodded in response to greetings and salutes by habit; she was intent on getting to Medical as quickly as possible, to take her place at the young man’s side. She had to be there when he awoke because that was all she could do for him right now. The person Finn would have wanted to wake up to, the girl Rey, had already departed in the Millennium Falcon, on a mission to bring back Luke Skywalker.

The return of her brother would have been the single all-consuming thought in Leia’s mind, were it not for Finn. At first, the medics had been unwilling to say Finn would even survive the surgeries, much less recover; but once the surgeries were completed, they reported that although there was massive soft tissue destruction, neither Finn’s vital organs nor his nervous system had been damaged and he would recover almost completely once he woke up. Leia received the report with great relief, but then one of the medics added the comment that Finn’s wound’s location and depth suggested that it might have been deliberate, but realistically speaking, it had to be luck because no one could deliver a lightsaber blow with such precision.

Leia know he was utterly wrong.

She’d watched Luke practice the technique many times. And then she’d sent her son to Luke’s academy where he would be taught that same technique, that same precision.  She’d done that, so in a very real, if illogical, way, she felt responsible for Finn. Leia felt responsible for many things. She felt responsible for her child’s turn to the Darkside. She felt responsible for his father’s death. But for her, Leia Organa, one-time princess, one-time senator, one-time general, one-time wife and one-time mother, none of this would have happened. The love of her life would still be alive and her son would not be a monster.

It was all her fault.

Suddenly there was a slight, but unmistakable, flutter in the Force. Leia heard that familiar  soundless voice urging her to hurry, so she started to walk faster, then faster still, until she was running, all the way to and then through the entrance to Medical.

 

_………_

_The air was warm and softly sweet; and a face, so brown, so beautiful, was smiling down at him. And behind hers, another, darker face with piercing dark eyes that looked down at him with pride.  He wanted desperately for her to pick him up and hold him and speak to him, and then as she started to lift him, suddenly her smile vanished. Blinding light and thunderous noise that hurt his eyes and ears, then suddenly he was caught up, wrapped in darkness, then the layers were stripped away and he was in a large room surrounded by wailing children, all as confused and terrified as he was. But he didn’t cry. Instead, he looked around, trying to make sense of it. Suddenly a smooth grey face was in his, blocking out everything else. Big grey eyes peered into his, studying him intensely. Then a thin, grey, three-fingered hand grabbed his and slipped something cold and black onto one of his fingers. The grey hand squeezed the black thing; it buzzed quietly, and he let out a howl of distress as intense pain shot through his captive finger. The black thing buzzed again and then it sang out a single high-pitched tone. The grey hand slipped the black thing off of his throbbing finger, lifted the thing to its face and stared at it in silence._

_“Five-Five-Two?” A voice came from somewhere unseen. “Is there a problem?”_

_“No,” The grey face replied without turning its head. “just a sampling failure. I’ll do another.”_

_No reply came from the unseen voice. The grey face looked back over its shoulder for a few seconds, then back to him. He watched in terror as the black thing of pain moved in grey face’s hand, but instead of replacing it on his finger, the grey face slipped it’s *own* finger into_ _the thing and pressed. The black thing beeped once and fell silent. The grey face looked at him for a moment longer; its face seemed kinder than before. Then it straightened up and took a step backwards and waved to someone he could not see._

_“Here’s one,” it announced loudly, “for sanitation.”_

_Grey face dissolved into grey walls and grey ceilings. Tiny bodies dressed in grey marching in silence, eating in silence, sitting in silence as a loud shrill voice shouted endlessly._

_“Order.  Order.  Order. Order. Order. All is Order. Know. Your. Place.”_

_The voice changed, the place changed, but the message remained the same. Grey turned into black. Black walls, black ceilings, windows that looked out into blackness, and a silent figure in black moving through the gloom…_

_Suddenly there was fire surrounding him on all sides, raging and hot. A stinging pain in his leg crippled him.  Exhausted, he fell to his knees, closing his eyes, surrendering. Then he felt a gloved hand take hold of his wrist roughly._

_He opened his eyes; he knew *this* glove!_

_“GET UP!”_

_He knew *this* voice!_

_…………._

Seated at Finn’s bedside, Leia Organa had only just taken hold of Finn’s hand when she sensed it, but the young man sat bolt upright with such ferocity that he startled her. He gasped deeply, as if he’d just emerged from a deep dive, and turned his head to look straight at her.

“What…”

That one word was all he managed to speak before pain slammed him so hard he used the rest of the air in his lungs to let out an agonized shriek. Leia leaped up and leaned behind him, placing her hands on his shoulders to support him in place lest he fall back onto the bed.

“Steady,” she whispered, her voice was clam and soothing, drawing the pain out. “Steady now, Finn. Be still.”

After several very long, labored seconds, Leia felt one of the medics slide in alongside her. An arm assumed position on Finn’s back just below her own, and a voice said, “I’ve got him.”

Leia pulled herself free and sat back in the chair. Two more medics arrived and went to work; one pressed a hypodermic gun onto Finn’s arm while other held it still. A single shot, and Finn went slack, then they gently lowered him onto his side, facing Leia.

Leia saw that his eyes were still open wide, but his gaze was one of curiosity rather than pain.

“Welcome back,” Leia said. “For a while there, we thought we might lose you.”

“Where… ?”

“Safe.” Leia smiled reassuringly. “Resistance transport. You’re going to be fine.”

“Rey?”

“She’s fine. She brought you back to us.”

At that, Finn tried to move, to sit up, but neither the wound nor the meds would allow him. Leia reached out to touch him again, but was interrupted by the arrival of Finn’s other known friend, Poe Dameron, who shot through the doors and over to Finn’s bedside with the same reckless speed he’d shown in every craft they’d ever tried him in. No volume of stern warnings from his superiors, not even from his general, ever took hold long enough to slow him down, but Poe Dameron was as lucky as he was reckless. That was one reason Leia liked him so much.

“It’s about time you woke up!” Poe said loudly. The words sounded casual, but the man’s face was bright with relief, even joy, at seeing Finn awake. He quickly grabbed a chair from the next bed space, sat down on it and slid close to Finn at the same time. “I’ve been… bored stiff… waiting to hear this story. It had better be good!”

“It’s”, Finn spoke slowly, managing his breath,” complicated.”

Leia recognized that this was a good time for her to leave. Quietly, she slid her own chair back, losing sight of Finn behind Poe, who was doing all the talking, then rose and made her exit without drawing attention. By the time she reached her quarters, she was already yawning and looking forward to getting the first decent sleep she’d had in a long time.  Seated on her bed, Leia just pulled off her shoes, then lay down fully clothed. She closed her eyes and tried to think about nothing. She was just drifting off when once again she felt a flutter in the force. Fearing that something had gone wrong with Finn, she stretched just enough to tap the comink and contact medical.

“No, General.” The voice from medical replied, “He’s doing very well right now. He’s talking more, too; his friend is still with him.”

Leia tapped the comlink off and shifted uneasily on the bed. Not Finn. Then, who? Luke? Or perhaps it was… no, not him. Please, not him. She could try to find out, but that would mean touching the Force. Luke had spent many hours teaching her how to open her mind, but she’d always hated doing it.  Reality was supposed to be physical, like a planet or a star, not some dream state where absolutely nothing was what it seemed to be and reality could be twisted and bent like soft candy being shared. And as far as Leia was concerned, the sharing was the worst part of touching the Force. Since nothing in there was real, there was nothing one could trust. And no one to trust, either. The Force was always crowded, but when she was there, she was always alone. Leia closed her eyes. The flutter was still there, tugging on her mind, calling to her. There was simply no ignoring it, so she took a deep breath and let go.

_Suddenly she was there, inside the Force, and the Force was inside her. There was nothing on all sides, nothing below, nothing above; she was suspended. She reached out, but the nothing held firm, blocking her way. The flutter was there, though, just beyond her reach. Perhaps if she pushed a little harder, it would give way. So she pushed, but the nothing pushed back hard._

Leia found herself sprawled on the floor beside her bed, her heart pounding like mad and her head aching.

Somebody was using the Force to reach her.

Somebody else was making sure they didn’t.  

She needed her brother.

 

********************************  

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

…………….

 

_So this is it, this is the end._

Luke Skywalker stood on at the edge of the cliff, staring out across the sea, waiting.  He could feel it coming toward him at lightspeed, pushing the Force before it like a bow shock.  He’d been expecting it for some time now, ever since he sensed that one of the only two beings in the galaxy he trusted with the knowledge of where he was going and why was dead.  

Lor San Tekka had been both teacher and friend; there was no one Luke respected more. In fact, Tekka had been the last being he’d spoken with before he began his search to find the Source, the place from which all Jedi arose. Luke had burdened him with the task of keeping knowledge that was too dangerous to risk with anyone else, and a key to finding Luke should urgent need  arise for him to return. At first, Tekka objected and tried to dissuade Luke from his plans, but in the end, the old man sighed and took the key, promising to protect it at any cost.  Since the cost had been Tekka’s life, Luke could only assume the worst and wait for it.

Hours passed, and except for the ever-rising Force wave approaching, Luke sensed nothing.  It was as if he was waiting on a force of nature; power unconscious and devoid of purpose was speeding toward him and he was unable to comprehend it.  But he wasn’t afraid; whatever was coming was almost certainly what he deserved. None of what happened had been his choice, but he was nonetheless to blame for it. Luke Skywalker - one-time farmer, one-time rebel, one-time Jedi – had managed to fail in almost every way that mattered, and the whole galaxy was paying for his mistakes.

His first mistake was believing that the fall of the Empire meant anything.  It didn’t.

As soon as the ashes cooled, dark seeds sprouted.  Luke quickly sensed that in no time at all, the Republic would be rotten through with ambition, greed and hate again, and everything they’d all worked so hard to attain would be choked by it. Time passed much too quickly as he sought out any and every source of wisdom he could in order to find a way to stop the decay, or at the very least, slow it down. The search quickly became an obsession.

That was his second mistake.

He spent less and less time at the Jedi academy, leaving the work of training Padawans to others while he sought a way to protect them from the growing Darkness.  And so, when that Darkness fell on the Academy and they were all slaughtered, he wasn’t there.

He wasn’t there to defend them.  He wasn’t there to die with them.

And after, when he learned that his sister’s son had been a part of it, he should have killed the boy, but he failed to do it because his love for his sister was stronger than his disgust with Ben.  Instead, he went charging off into the galaxy in search of an answer to a question he hadn’t thought through enough to realize how utterly pointless it was to ask.

Tekka tried to tell him. He should have listened.

 

Suddenly the Force wave arrived.  It came quietly, like the turning tide or the evening breeze, and Luke was surprised by that. It was close now, below him, flowing up the stone steps toward him. Taking a few deep breaths, Luke calmed himself and waited.  It climbed higher, closer, and now it was right here, right behind him. Luke closed his eyes and waited.

Nothing happened.

It was here, but it had stopped. Now it was waiting.

_So this is it. This is the end._

Luke was ready.

He turned to face it, and what he saw struck him dumb with astonishment.

A girl.

Breathless and glistening from the effort of the climb, she seemed so fragile, so delicate, but her face was strong and her eyes showed determination.  She looked at him in silence, as if she was expecting something from him, but Luke had absolutely no idea what that could be.  He stood there, staring, trying to process what it all meant, but then the girl reached into a shoddy pack she was carrying and pulled out something even more astonishing.

Darth Vader’s lightsaber.

And without a word of explanation, she stretched out her arm and offered it to him.

 

……………


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's simply amazing how a movie scene in your head that lasts, say, ten minutes at most, takes hours and hours to put into words.
> 
> There's a time shift, ten days...

 -3-

 

 

Rey was at her wit’s end.

For ten days and nights, she’d tried to persuade that man, that Luke Skywalker, that Jedi Master, to accept her as his, what did General Leia call it?

Padawan.   

It was a word she’d never heard before, a word that right now was the only word she wanted to hear.

_Padawan. Yes._

She’d talked herself to exhaustion, spending hours trailing the Jedi Master around the island like a hungry grumba pup, reasoning, pleading, even begging. Every now and then, the Jedi Master would ask her a question as they walked, mostly about her life on Jakku.  

 _Jakku? Who cared about Jakku_!   

No, she’d told him, nothing of importance ever happened to her there – except for the arrival of BB8 and all that came after.  Yes, she had many dreams, and yes, they were mostly about places where one didn’t have to walk for hours to reach water. And, yes, she dreamed about an island. None of her answers to his questions seemed to have any impact on him at all, except when she mentioned Kylo Ren. He seemed to be the only subject that interested the Jedi Master. Since she was now once again trotting behind Master Luke, it might be worth taking the chance of bringing the name up one more time. Not that she wanted to. The very thought of Kylo Ren made her feel ill. She never knew it was possible to hate someone the way she hated him. Yet, there was something about him that she could feel eating away at her inside. It always came back to that room and that bizarre confrontation, about which she was still greatly confused.

“I still don’t understand”, she spoke quietly to draw Master Luke’s attention,” How I could get into Kylo Ren’s head like I did.”

Hearing that name caused the Jedi Master to stop and, this time, he took an unusually long time before responding to her prompt.

“Tell me again,” he said,” about that.”

“I’m sure I’ve told you everything I remember by now. I don’t…”

Master Luke folded his arms across his chest, a clear signal that no was not going to be an option, so Rey sighed and began the story again.

“I was trying to get away and he caught me.” She was going to keep it simple, so she could get through it as quickly as possible. “Then he took me. He questioned me but I didn’t tell him anything, and then…”

“Wait.” Master Luke said.

He unfolded his arms and then stretched his left hand, the real one, out toward her, coming close but not touching her.  He’d never done this before! A wave of alarm washed over Rey as she sensed the Jedi Master reaching into her mind, browsing through her memory with the ease she would flip through old spec manuals on Jakku.  This intrusion wasn’t like the first time someone had invaded her head; there was no pain this time, and except for the sense that the Jedi Master was with her, watching, listening, she could barely feel it at all. Free from fear of that pain, Rey relaxed and remembered. The images slipped by quickly, until she remembered being in that room…

 

_He took off the hideous black helmet and looked at her. Not what she’d expected, in fact, he seemed… familiar. Determined not to show fear, she met his gaze straight on and something happened. She didn’t understand it, but it rattled her.  She blinked first.  After that came the invasion, but instead of simply ripping her mind apart to get what he wanted, he started to recite her own life to her. She resisted, she pushed back, and to her surprise, he let her in. Instinctively, she saw the opportunity and seized it. She stopped listening to his words, reached in deep and found exactly what she needed._

_“You! You’re afraid,” she hissed, “that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader!”_

_He jerked back, wounded in a way she didn’t understand. She could feel it. For a split second, she wanted to take it back, not because she feared what he would do to her now but because she’d hurt him so badly…_

 

“Enough.” Master Luke pulled his hand back, releasing her.  

Breathing heavily from the exertion, Rey waited impatiently for him to say something, but the Jedi Master was silent. Instead, he clasped his hands behind his back and proceeded to start walking again.  So she followed him, her mind weary; this was going to be impossible.  What words were left? What words could she say that would persuade him? She’d never wanted anything as much as she wanted this _._

 

_Suddenly she was fighting Kylo Ren. Amid the heat of blazing lightsabers and the swirling cold of the snow, he was shouting at her. Their eyes locked; and for an instant, she was fascinated by what she saw there. The instant passed and all that remained was her rage._

 

That was all over days ago, but his words were still with her, echoing inside her head like a song she could not forget no matter how hard she tried. Now Rey knew exactly what the words should be. She quickly stepped up beside the Jedi Master, grabbed his arm and jerked him to a stop.  And when she was sure she had his attention, she looked up at him with fire in her eyes and shouted in a voice that didn’t sound like hers at all.

**“I need a *teacher*! *You*can show me the ways of the Force!”**

Master Luke stared at her, motionless, as if her words had just turned him to stone.  But then the hand came up, this time with speed as well as purpose, and Rey had no defense against it.  The Jedi Master was in her head again, searching, but the invasion only lasted for a few seconds. Having found whatever it was he was seeking, Master Luke released her again. Long, torturous seconds passed as Rey searched Master Luke’s face for a sign. Finally, it came - in the form of a long, deep sigh.

“So be it, then,” Luke Skywalker said.”Padawan.”

 

……………………..

 

 

Chewbacca the Wookie was getting worried about the girl.

The eleventh day here on the island was over, and outside the Millennium Falcon, it was already getting very dark.  The island was nothing more than a huge rock, steep and craggy and made up of many places where a girl could lose her footing or slip and break something, or worse.  In the short time since she’d brought back the Falcon to them, Chewbacca had grown very fond of her and despite what he said, Han Solo had liked the girl instantly.

Han Solo!

For Chewbacca, there were not enough howls in the galaxy to soothe the pain of this loss; not enough things to break, not enough walls or beings to strike.  There was only the memory that played over and over in his mind.

 

_Han. Ben. The red glow of the light saber.  Chewbacca’s own weapon firing - and almost missing the target._

 

Had Han seen that, there would have been no end to the ridicule, because Chewbacca’s aim always struck true.  Not this time, though.  It only deepened the sorrow the Wookie felt when he realized that perhaps when he looked at the man who had just killed his friend, he saw the boy - and that memory held him back just long enough to miss. If Kylo Ren’s life was spared in that moment, it was the bright, thoughtful child that Chewbacca would carry on his shoulders in what seemed like another lifetime that saved him.  Chewbacca vowed that would not happen again. He would find the man who killed Han Solo and kill him.

Chewbacca’s thoughts went back to the girl. Every day since they’d arrived, she and Luke would walk, usually for hours, up and down the steps while Chewbacca slept. He and Luke never discussed the arrangement, it seemed natural that when the girl was with Luke, Chewbacca would rest and at night, when the girl returned to the Falcon to sleep, Chewbacca would stand watch. Despite her fearless demeanor, the girl slept best in the familiar surroundings of metal and composites; the island’s sounds of waves and leaves rustling in the night made her uneasy. The Millennium Falcon was home to her now, and Chewbacca found comfort in that.  

Today Luke and Rey were late. Luke would always deliver the girl back to the Falcon well before dusk, but the evening meal had gone cold and they had had not yet returned. Standing at the base of the Falcon’s gangplank, Chewbacca scanned the steep rise of the island for a sign of Luke and Rey, and spotted them high up the stone stairs, well above the cluster of ancient and empty stone huts that may have once been a village. All the huts did now was mark the location of the circular field comprised of crushed stone where the Falcon had landed. The field was probably a ceremonial site of some kind, as there were groups of stone benches spaced around it.  One of the benches had a small stone fire pit nearby. Chewbacca had learned the first night here that Luke was accustomed to spending time there at night, so he walked over to stir and feed the embers so the fire would be blazing and warm when the two arrived. By then, the fire and the glow of the Falcon’s lights would be the only things not lost to the dark.

Then he hurried back to the Falcon to warm the food.

 

…………

 

The girl was fast asleep. She’d come in cold and utterly exhausted, eaten almost all the food herself, then trudged to her sleeping place and simply dropped herself there. She was asleep in minutes. 

After taking a moment to cover the girl with a blanket, Chewbacca made his way out of the Falcon and walked across the stone to where Luke Skywalker was sitting, as expected, by the fire.  Chewbacca had sensed immediately upon their return that today something had changed, but so far, neither the girl nor Luke had said anything about what.  The Wookie had long since accepted that there would be many times when he would find himself left out; it was part of the price that an ordinary being paid to know a Skywalker, to know about the Force. Han was often a skeptic, but Chewbacca never doubted. When he arrived at the stone bench, Luke was staring into the fire, far way in thought, so Chewbacca eased his long body down beside the Jedi, made himself as comfortable as possible and waited.

“Did she eat?”

Luke had asked the question without moving his eyes from the fire.

“Yes.” Chewbacca kept his reply brief. Luke had never been very good with the Wookie language, a fact that often resulted in unintentionally hilarious conversations. “Tonight she was very hungry. And tried.”

“Good. Good. “Luke said.” We’re going to need a lot more food.”

“Why?”

“I’ve agreed to train her.”

Chewbacca was impressed. It had taken eleven days, but the girl had worn Luke Skywalker down to the point where he’d finally said yes after what was, at first, a very strongly expressed no. _Good for her_ , he thought.

“No.” Luke said. “Not good for her; not good for her at all.”

Luke’s reply to his thought didn’t bother Chewbacca; it was often the only way the two of them could hold a meaningful conversation because Luke’s Wookie was truly that bad.

“Guilty as charged.” Luke laughed.

Chewbacca wondered: H _ow will we get more food? Certainly not here._

“There’s a small group of traders that sail these islands,” Luke said. “They come here regularly. I expect them tomorrow, early, maybe just before dawn. They’re a raucous gang, so don’t be alarmed if you hear them long before they come ashore.”

Luke stood up, and started to leave, but only took one step before Chewbacca stopped him with a thought.

_Do I get to know what changed today?_

Luke turned and looked back at him. Chewbacca could see that the Jedi was troubled by the question, and wondered if he should not have asked.

“No,” Luke said, “It’s all right. Maybe if I tell you, it will help me understand. Today the girl challenged me; she *demanded* that I be her teacher, that I show her the ways of the Force.”

Chewbacca waited. There had to be more.

“And she did it using *Ben Solo’s* voice.”

And then Luke Skywalker walked off into the dark, leaving Chewbacca alone by the fire to stand watch and wonder.

 

……….


	4. Chapter 4

It was still long before dawn when Luke Skywalker heard the sounds of the trader boats approaching. They didn’t wake him; he’d been awake all night thinking about the mystifying and deeply disturbing events of the previous day. Where had she come from, this sweet girl who seemed not to have even the slightest clue that she was force-sensitive? Force-sensitive? That term sounded so inadequate. Rey wasn’t just sensitive; she was positively crackling with energy, like a storm cloud about to release lightning. Luke was in awe of her, afraid of her, afraid for her, yet he’d agreed to teach her the ways of the Force, not because he believed it was the right thing to do, but because he couldn’t refuse her demand. She was not his first experience dealing with such a serious condition; he’d trained another who showed signs of unknowingly having exceptional power – and utterly failed in that effort. He had vowed never to take such a risk again, but the girl simply overwhelmed him. How she knew the only words that might soften his resolve; the only voice that could shame him into a change of heart, was a mystery that Luke was not sure he wanted to investigate.

When he looked down the hillside towards the stone landing where the traders would soon be pulling their boats ashore, Luke saw a tall, shaggy silhouette standing in the misty gloom. Chewbacca’s hearing was so sensitive that the high-frequency whistles and clicks that served the locals as language were probably assaulting his senses in ways Luke could not appreciate. As he walked down to join the Wookie, Luke felt a slight tremor in the stone under his feet as the traders measured the distance from their boats to the beach using ultra low-frequency sound that was below Luke’s hearing but was almost certainly buzzing in Chewbacca’s ears.

The sky grew brighter as sunrise approached, revealing the little fleet of tiny boats that was riding the surf up onto the stony beach. As soon as each boat came aground, its occupants leaped out, took hold of the hull and dragged it up beyond the reach of the waves. By the time Luke and Chewbacca reached them, the traders had already unloaded two bundles onto the beach.  Short in stature and covered with leathery-looking hides, the traders appeared to be born of - and for - the sea; their large eyes flashed as the clear nictitating membranes that protected those eyes slid open and closed with every splash of ocean spray. One of the them greeted Luke with a wave of a webbed four-fingered hand and a whistle that made Chewbacca wince in pain. Now engaged and excited by the transaction to come, the traders whistled and clicked even louder than before. Luke tapped Chewbacca's arm and pointed at the bundles. Grateful for the unspoken escape offer, Chewbacca snatched the bundles up and quickly left, heading back to the Falcon and quiet. When he got there, the girl was standing on the gangway waiting for him.

“That’s them, right?” she asked. “What are they like?”

“Loud.” Chewbacca growled and walked past her, into the Falcon. Once inside, he went to the galley and dropped the bundles on the floor. The girl followed him in, and immediately started to investigate the bundles. She opened the first one.

“Dried fish.” She said, and made a face. Then she opened the second bundle and groaned.

 “More dried fish.”

Chewbacca meowed, agreeing with her assessment of the food. The dried fish was filling, but totally tasteless. Chewbacca figured Luke had been eating it for so long that he’d forgotten what food actually tasted like, or stopped caring.

“Hmm,” Rey said, “Traders. I know traders. Do we have anything I can go down there with to trade for something, um, that’s not fish?”

Chewbacca considered the idea for a minute, and purred something about doubting Luke wanted her to go down there, but the girl would not be put off.

“Maybe I can get us something… sweet.”

It had been ages since Chewbacca had tasted sweet. Since Luke had not specifically mentioned that the girl not go down there, and being from Jakku, she was probably a very good little trader, Chewbacca decided that yes, he would like sweet. Very much.

“Look for metal,” Rey suggested. “Metal always works.”

The two of them opened cabinets and pulled out drawers, finding several seldom-used metal utensils, a bowl, and a small empty glass vial that looked promising to Rey.  Then she noticed a metal cup in a cabinet, pushed back and out of her reach.

"What about that?" she asked.

Chewbacca pulled the cup out, looked at it thoughtfully for a moment, and then handed it to her. The cup was dented and dusty and almost entirely covered in a layer of oxidation; obviously it had not been used in a very long time. But it had no holes and as such, was a great candidate for a good trade.

“These should do." Rey grabbed her pack bag and quickly stuffed the items inside it. ”I won’t be long.”

Chewbacca followed her to the Falcon’s entry and watched as she almost danced her way down the stone path toward the beach and the traders. Then his gaze passed her and he saw Luke standing away from the group, having a private conversation with one of them. Chewbacca decided he’d follow the girl part of the way to watch over her, and with any luck, Luke wouldn’t notice she was down there at all.

When the traders saw Rey approaching, at first, they were apprehensive. They stepped back and huddled together, watching her.  But Rey knew the protocol - planets changed, beings changed, but trading was the same throughout the galaxy.  She pulled her bag from its place over her shoulder and set it on the beach in front of her. When this was not enough to motivate the traders, Rey leaned over and pulled the bag open, giving them just a glimpse of what was inside. The flash of metal in the morning sun worked its magic, and suddenly she was surrounded by traders, each one offering an item to trade. Rey knew no way to indicate “sweet”, so she was forced to examine every offer; and finally when she saw something appealing, she pointed to her choice, and the crowd dispersed, leaving only her and the victorious trader to complete the deal. The little trader hurried off to a boat with the contents of the bag, leaving Rey with a handful of red and white rolled up somethings. She took a breath, then touched one to her tongue, and was relieved when it tasted sweet.

Rey wasted no time returning to the Falcon with the treasure, but when she entered the ship, she heard voices.  Master Luke and Chewbacca were in the ship’s cockpit, and Rey had arrived just in time to catch the end of their conversation.

“Can we make it?” Master Luke asked.

“Yes,” Chewbacca replied.

Then Master Luke left the cockpit, brushed past her without speaking, and quickly left the ship. Rey went immediately to Chewbacca, who was sitting at the flight console, his long furry fingers typing rapidly. When she saw that he was entering co-ordinates, she flopped into the other seat and asked him.

“Are we going someplace?

The Wookie nodded without looking at her. As soon as the last numerical entry was done, he slumped back and looked at her with his face so tight he’d bared his teeth. He was about to tell this girl who’d been through so much in so little time that she was once again on her way into dangerous territory.

“The Outer Rim.”

 

..........................

 

The Finalizer was in transit, this time heading to Sullust, to rendezvous with the Knights of Ren. There was very little to see in hyperspace, but General Hux liked to have the monitors running while he dealt with the minutia of commanding a Resurgence class starship. He was sitting in his private command office, reviewing the endless list of Watch reports when his eyes fell onto one extremely minor notation:

 _Note:_ Subsection 55478 reports that there is no sanitation service in the Officer’s Showers.

Hux shook his head; even now, days later and far away, FN-2187 was *still* finding ways to annoy the First Order.  The chain of command on a vessel the size of the Finalizer was so long that it was entirely possible that the news of the stormtrooper’s abandonment of his post was still working its way up that chain, and this note was now aging quietly in a queue on a screen in some mid-level officer’s workstation. It reminded Hux that FN-2187, one of the many nameless grunts who bore the responsibility of keeping the Finalizer livable, had demonstrated that he was capable of much, much more than flushing waste systems by almost single-handedly causing the destruction of Starkiller base. Hux blamed the Order’s selection protocol for that; clearly the young man had true officer potential and the Order has missed it at every evaluation.  Hux wondered how many more FN-2187’s might be infesting the ship; perhaps they, too, were plotting against the First Order as they scrubbed out toilets and refilled sanitation dispensers…

A sudden, brief tremor shook Hux and his office; it was the familiar sensation of the Finalizer’s sub-light systems coming online, meaning his vessel was about to drop out of lightspeed. They’d arrived at the edge of the Sullust system. Now he would have to wait, to waste precious time that should be spent on his primary mission, for the arrival of the Knights of Ren.

_Dammit._

To Hux’s disappointment, it turned out that the arrival of Supreme Leader’s favorite pets was for something other than selecting a new Kylo. Not long after Hux had left Ren standing alone before leader Snoke, he received instructions to have food delivered to Ren’s quarters, meaning the much-desired execution had not taken place. The food was delivered, and most of the time, an empty service cart was removed at the next watch. But no one had seen the Kylo Ren. When and how Ren returned to his quarters was not known; nobody had seen him since he’d been delivered to the Assembly Room; nor had any of the food service personnel seen him when they delivered food carts. Nobody knew anything; and Hux found that thought unnerving. And if there was something even more unnerving, more unpredictable and violent than Kylo Ren, it was the Knights of Ren. They would arrive in their private transport, a vessel that was completely off limits to all First Order personnel, including Hux himself, by direct order of the Supreme Leader; and once here, they would do as they pleased because they were free to do so, also by direct order of the Supreme Leader. Finalizer personnel were under orders to always give way when encountering them, and never to interfere with whatever they did. And they did a lot.

So far, leader Snoke had not chosen to inform Hux why the Knights had been summoned, but that was routine when it came to the Knights of Ren. In the past, the Knights would arrive, their Kylo would join them, and then they’d depart as quietly and quickly as they’d come. 

At least Hux had that possibility to look forward to.

So it was a totally expected surprise when the general’s comlink crackled to life and the voice of a bridge officer announced that the Knights of Ren were already there.

 

By the time Hux arrived at the Diplomatic Hanger, the Ren transport had docked and its occupants were walking down the ramp. The seven beings, each completely hidden inside layers of armor and heavy cloaks, strode onto the hanger floor, stopped and surveyed the entire chamber in all directions, then approached Hux. Every movement, every step, conveyed the same message of superiority and contempt that their Kylo’s did, but unlike with Ren, Hux had never seen any of their faces uncovered. That fact alone made it possible that each and every one of these Knights might be genuinely superior, so Hux made sure his demeanor conveyed the message of respect. As always, there would be no conversation. The Knights knew their orders and Hux knew his own, so as soon as they met, Hux turned and led them through the Finalizer to the Assembly Room.

When the great doors to the Assemby Room opened to admit them, Hux saw that Supreme Leader was already in residence waiting for them. He stopped at the entrance, allowing the Knights to pass him and enter, then turned to depart.

“General Hux,” leader Snoke called, “Join us.”

Hux hesitated for a second; this was unusual. When the Knights were called, all that was ever expected of Hux was delivery. Feeling uneasy, Hux made his way to his assigned position and stood at attention, looking up towards leader Snoke; waiting.  Then from the corner of his eye, Hux saw something emerge from the darkness.

_Dammit._

The Kylo of Ren was back.

Beyond the confirmation of his existence, there was no other information about Ren to be seen; he was completely covered, his face hidden inside a new helmet, his body hidden beneath black clothing identical to what he’d worn before. The Knignts of Ren approached their Kylo and bowed to him, then all of them turned toward their Supreme Leader and bowed.

“Go now,” the Supreme Leader said.

That was all that was said. The Knights immediately started for the great doors, and Hux started to follow when leader Snoke spoke again.

“General Hux,” Snoke said, ”remain with me.”

The Knights vanished behind the great doors, and Hux was now alone in the Assembly Room with leader Snoke.

“I am sending the Knights of Ren on a singularly important mission,” Snoke began,” and you shall be assisting them.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

“Listen carefully, General.” Snoke continued, his words a warning as well as instruction. “The Knights of Ren will locate and capture the young woman who escaped from us. When they have her, they will bring her to you for transport to a location I will provide when the time comes.”

Hux was confused by this news. Aside from a comment made days ago about Ren being “right” about the girl, leader Snoke hadn’t mentioned her again. Hux knew about the connection of the girl to the Millennium Falcon, his assignment, and wondered why leader Snoke had not given this task to him as well.

”A situation has developed that requires a change of plans," Snoke kept the explanation brief. "The Knights of Ren will find the girl, of that you can be sure. And they will deliver her to you.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

“And when you have secured the girl, General Hux,” Snoke continued, “The Knights of Ren - not unlike your Starkiller Base -  will have served their purpose." Snoke paused for a second to let the message sink in, then added, "I trust you will see to it.”

For a full minute, Hux was stunned speechless.

In all of his fantasies about how and where and when he would kill Kylo Ren, Hux had never imagined that he would be doing it with the Supreme Leader’s *permission*. Controlling his elation, Hux straightened himself up tall to communicate his gratitude and replied with still too much joy in his voice.

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

_Yes, indeed._

_………….._


	5. Chapter 5

 

 

There were days when Maz Kanata felt that perhaps she’d lived too long.

All of her life, she’d felt it; the Force, calling to her, urging her to walk in directions she would not have chosen for herself. Centuries crawled by as she resisted, but with every passing year, she found herself pushed further and further, always away, always in the direction of the Unknown. Now she had once again been pushed because she had refused to move on her own. She'd grown too comfortable on Takadona, so the Force tracked her down there and forced her hand. She should have realized when Han Solo arrived that trouble would soon follow, and been more prepared for the subsequent violence, but she’d been totally distracted when the precious light saber she’d been protecting for eventual return to Luke Skywalker chose that *girl* instead of him.  So when the attack came, Maz was surprised and enraged. Too many sentient beings fell before that rage, and Maz couldn’t bear to stay there any longer.  So, like so many others, she packed up what remained of her life and left, this time for the furthest place she could think of – the Outer Rim.

She thought that this unremarkable little planet in the Outer Rim would make do for now, but no sooner had she arrived and found a place to set up business when *he* showed up.

He said his name was Dar Noaa.  

He was Sith.

In her long lifetime, Maz had known many Sith, but never one like this. Dar Noaa was one of the rarest and most endangered creatures in the galaxy, a Scitech Sith. It was not long after the Empire fell that the Scitech Sith revealed themselves collectively to the Republic, seeking recognition as a separate Sith Order, an order dedicated to the science of the Force rather than the religion. It was common knowledge in the galaxy that both Jedi and Sith had followers who were not warriors in the classic sense, but instead served by developing technology; but those individuals were always shrouded in secrecy, even shame, because they were considered heretics. The Sith were quick to react to the Scitech Sith announcement; they condemned the Scitech Sith for heresy, hunted them down and killed them, resulting in a fast decline in Sith technological strength, leaving them weak and vulnerable. It was rumored that a few of the most gifted Scitech Sith found refuge in the Republic, but that story was quickly forgotten along with the Scitech Sith, as the Republic struggled to get firmly established and in control.

So it was with great suspicion that Maz even permitted Dar Noaa to speak with her in the first place, but when she had listened to what he’d come to say, Maz knew it was time to break her promise.

It was time to send for Luke Skywalker.

First, Maz tried to reach the Jedi Master through the Force, but she found herself totally blocked. Numerous exhausting attempts later, Maz gave up and resorted to the old way; she sent a messenger.  The process was slow and risky, it would be days and days before the messenger would reach his destination, and once there, find Skywalker. Then there was the risk that the Jedi Master might not be there, or would not choose to come, considering what happened while her messenger was still on his way, but the Scitech Sith said he would wait.

 

Maz was trying to get settled in this new place, but she was unable to resist repeatedly going outside to look for Skywalker. She’d step out of her door, stand quietly in the street, tune out the bustle of everyday activity there and try to sense the Jedi out there somewhere. Days and nights of nothing followed by disappointing reports to Dar Noaa were starting to wear heavily on her; the most precious of the crates she’d brought here remained upstairs mostly unpacked. That fact gave Maz the uneasy feeling that her time here in this place was going to be brief. So another day spent, it was late afternoon, when Maz stepped outside once again and reached out, seeking…

He was here.

Skywalker was here; but he was not *alone*; another presence was with him, and Maz recognized it instantly.

 _Almost a Thousand years gone by and still, they always come back to me,_ Maz thought.

_I should have known._

Then she put her thoughts aside and went to tell Dar Noaa that his wait was over.

 

………..

Aboard the Finalizer, General Hux was in his quarters, using his private time to plan the details of his new mission. Not an easy assignment, but Leader Snoke would not have ordered the elimination of the Knights of Ren if it were not within Hux’s capacity to execute those orders. Perhaps Kylo Ren’s completed “training” had rendered the Knight limited in his abilities, so he would not sense, or even suspect in the slightest, the betrayal to come. Or leader Snoke simply considered Hux expendable, so if he failed in this mission, that would be no great loss and another would be given the assignment. In the end, leader Snoke considered everyone expendable. It occurred to Hux that once the girl was secured and delivered, he himself might have served his purpose, too. And if he did survive, all he would have accomplished was replacing one Supreme Leader pet with another. Hux didn’t know why leader Snoke wanted the girl so badly, but he saw the probability that she was a great danger to him and his plan. Kylo Ren was psychotic, but Hux knew his strengths and weaknesses and how to exploit them.  The girl was a complete unknown, except for one undeniable truth; she’d *beaten* Ren, and that told Hux all he needed to know. The pleasure of killing Ren would immediately be replaced by the misery of submission to the girl.  That was something Hux could not allow to happen.

_Of course._

There was a way; but it would require exquisite planning and fearless treachery. Before he eliminated the Knights of Ren, he would use the Knights of Ren to eliminate the girl.  The Knights were powerful, but they had two weaknesses. The first weakness was that they had to send constant reports to the Finalizer on their progress and location. They insisted on doing it in person, face to face with a First Order operative at specific locations at specific times. Hux would quietly replace the Order operative with one of his own special agents, who would meet the Knight as expected, and deliver a message that could be as lethal as poison because of the Knights’ second weakness: Pride. When the Knights of Ren accepted a new Knight into their ranks, that Knight was required to swear an oath of *absolute* fidelity. Even the slightest infraction by one would bring disgrace to them all.

_Of course._

Hux knew exactly what to have his agent say, and the beauty of it was not just that it would incite the Knights to act against the girl, but that it also could quite possibly be true.

 

……………

 

Having docked and secured the Millennium Falcon as best they could, Chewbacca, Luke and Rey made their way cautiously along a valley road, heading toward a town that sat high on a hill overlooking them. Luke in his hood and Rey with her staff at her side drew almost no attention from passersby, but every one of them stole a glance at the Wookie. A quick look back from the shaggy giant would send them scurrying on. Traffic on the road was limited to beings on foot and a few carts pulled by animals, but the road became quite crowded and busy by the time the trio had reached the outmost walls of the town. They were swept along with the flow through the streets until they arrived at an open space, its marketplace, where the town’s routine business was being conducted. Luke stopped them there.

At first, Rey thought Master Luke had stopped them because the swirling mass of beings before them was too much for him; he’d been alone on that island for years. But when she looked at him, she saw him staring into space, as she’d seen many times now, seeking something that for now, at least, was beyond her understanding. Then her thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a familiar voice right behind her.

“Are you *lost*?”

Luke, Rey and Chewbacca turned in unison and saw Maz Katana standing there.  At this moment, in a very real sense, the answer to that question for all three of them would have been yes, each for their own reasons.

“Maz!” Rey recovered first, stepped up, stooped and gave her an enthusiastic hug.

“You brought my boyfriend,” Maz said, then looked up at Chewbacca. “You are welcome here. *Always*.” Then she looked at Luke. “Tekka’s dead.”

“I know,” Luke replied tensely. “You sent for me, Maz. I’m here.”

“Better late than never,” Maz’s words were short but sharp and Luke felt the sting. “Come with me.”

Maz led the trio through the marketplace crowd, then down a street that became an alley, and stopped at a small, decaying clay brick building. Above its small door, a few ancient banners and flags, some shredded, some burned, fluttered bravely in the alley draft, proclaiming it to be Maz’s new castle to those who understood.

“This is my place now,” Maz told them as she led them inside, into a large room cluttered with mismatched furniture and opened crates. “It’s my home. Act accordingly.”

For a split second, Luke was puzzled by her remark, but then he sensed a presence there. It was to the right, beyond a small open archway, in a dimly lit room.

“You,” Maz pointed at Luke, “someone is waiting to speak with you.” She pointed to the archway. “In there.”

“Who is it?”

“Someone I believe you know,” Maz answered. “I beg you, Jedi, *listen* to what he has to say.”

Luke nodded silently.

“And you two,” Maz addressed herself to Chewbacca and Rey, “You look hungry to me. Come along now…”

 

Luke waited until Maz had led his companions away, across the room and up some stairs to a second floor before he turned and approached the side room. Inside, he could see two hooded figures sitting at a small table on which sat a clay jug and three clay cups. They looked up at him when he entered, revealing their faces.

On the left, there was the face of a young Sith. His face was emblazoned with red and black designs, his eyes glowing yellow with alert. Ceremonial kill earrings dangled from both of his ears, indicating he was combat-experienced. Luke met his challenging gaze directly; this one would not be a problem. The young Sith immediately lowered his eyes, withdrawing his challenge and showing respect to what he recognized as a Master of the Force.  

On the right, there was the face of someone Luke had met once before, but only briefly, when he was visiting his sister. He’d arrived unexpectedly and found the Sith there. Aside from an introduction, Leia offered no explanations and Luke hadn’t pursued it. Leia had refused Jedi training, and was free to associate with whomever she pleased, even if it did not meet with her brother’s approval. Seeing the Sith now, some years later, Luke noticed that Dar Noaa, much like himself, was aging. Unlike his young companion, the Scitech Sith only had two small facial tattoos, which anyone who did not know their meaning would consider purely decorative. Luke understood them; one identified him as Scitech and the other identified him as a heretic.  Dar Noaa spoke first.

“Thank you for coming,” he said, “Please, sit.”

“I doubt I’ll be here that long.”

“If you don’t sit, I assure you, *no one* will be here for long.”

The Sith’s remark intrigued Luke, so he slid onto the bench across the table from the Sith.

“Good,” Dar Noaa almost smiled. Then he turned his face to the young Sith and gestured to the archway, “Keep watch.”

The young Sith stood, pulled his hood forward to shield his face in shadow and departed. Dar Noaa picked up the jug and poured a dark liquid into one of the three cups.

“This is hot and strong,” he said as he pushed the cup toward Luke, “You’re going to need it.”

Luke looked at the cup, but did not take it.

“Suit yourself,” Dar Noaa said.

“If you have something to tell me,” Luke knew he was being much too impatient. “get on with it.”

“I believe you’ve been caught up on current events; The First Order, the republic, the Starkiller Base?”

“Yes.”

“Good, that will save me valuable time.” Dar Noaa leaned forward over the table, studying Luke in a way that made him uneasy. “I’m not sure how much of this you will understand, Jedi. I mean no offense; but metaphysics and real physics are different things.”

Luke nodded and opened his hands wide to indicate he was ready to listen.

“First, I have a question for you. How do you fit the mass of a star inside the volume of a planet?”

Luke started to reply, but then reconsidered that answer, and said nothing.

“Don’t overthink this, Jedi!” Dar Noaa growled. “Just answer the question – how do you fit the mass of a star inside the volume of a planet?”

“You don’t.”

“Exactly.”

Confused, Luke shook his head; the Scitech Sith had been correct; he didn’t understand. The Sith recognized that immediately.

“It’s a physical impossibility,” Dar Noaa explained. “Yet, the Starkiller Base appeared to do exactly that; it sucked in the mass of an entire star and then shot it back out in a controlled, directed stream. Farewell to the Republic. Farewell to the Jedi. Farewell to the few remaining Sith...”

“But not you, though.” Luke observed.

“That’s only because I was sitting *here*, waiting on you,” Dar Noaa snarled. “I should have been there; the Republic was hosting private meetings between Jedi and Sith; they were hoping to get us into an alliance against the First Order.”

“Oh.” Luke didn’t know about that; he’d stopped paying attention to currents in the Force a long time ago, and until the girl’s arrival, he’d forgotten about it.  But Luke knew almost all the remaining Force sensitives, Jedi, Sith and many others, so he was genuinely sorry to hear it.

“The Starkiller weapon idea has been around for a long time," Dar Noaa’s tawny eyes started to glow as his emotions rose. "The first time I heard about it, they were talking about something they called “quintessence". The idea was that it was possible to collect dark matter, then compress and contain it inside some receptacle like the core of a planet, to be drawn upon later for a useful purpose; terraforming a planet or vaporizing an enemy.  The theory was sound, but the technology was nonexistent.  I heard rumors that a technological application had finally been successful, and maybe it has; but if so, it's not the Starkiller weapon. That weapon might have sucked in a star, but *nothing* was stored inside that planet; it was merely a conduit to someplace else.”

“Someplace else?”

“Not hyperspace, not subspace, and not some metaphysical plane of existence, either.” Dar Noaa’s eyes were blazing now, “Someplace entirely outside the galaxy, in fact, outside the universe itself.”

Luke knew there were theories about space outside of space, but he'd never thought much about it himself. It seemed that Dar Noaa had given it much thought, thought, perhaps too much. But the Sith's words made sense; it was impossible to fit the mass of a star inside the volume of a planet. It was not impossible that someone had found a way to draw a star's mass off slowly and channel it someplace else for storage, provided that someplace was outside normal space. He didn't like where the Sith was going with this, but he was now interested in hearing it.

“The Starkiller Base was an illusion," Dar Noaa said. "The First Order must have believed they were constructing a weapon that would ensure their ultimate victory over the galaxy. And it might have been that, but somebody else had other intentions for it. I think it was constructed for one purpose, and one use only. Had the Resistance not succeeded in destroying it, the base would have been destroyed anyway.”

“Who?” Luke asked. “And how? And why?”

“I don’t know who. I don’t know how. But I know why,” Dar Noaa replied. “The technology at the core of the Starkiller weapon could not be allowed to fall into anyone’s hands. Not even the First Order understood what they had; because if they did, they would have never built it.”

Luke shook his head. Dar Noaa had now lost him completely. Realizing that he’d gone too far too fast, Dar Noaa settled himself, and tried again.

“Forget Starkiller,” he began, “I’ll get back to that. You know that in the past few decades, fewer and fewer Force-sensitives were being located for training. Both sides have admitted to that. You also know that among those Force-sensitives that were found and put into training there were some that were… defective.”

Anticipating where this Sith was about to take the conversation, Luke centered himself and did not react to the comment.

 “But,” Dar Noaa continued, “are you aware of how many Force sensitives have been located since your academy… closed?”

Luke didn’t answer. Dar Noaa’s eyes flickered with frustration, but he pressed on.

“None,” the Sith said, his eyes fixed intently on Luke’s. “Not one.”

“That’s impossible,” Luke replied angrily. “For every Force-sensitive lost, another is created. The Force always redistributes itself. That’s how balance is maintained.”

“That’s metaphysical law, Jedi,” Dar Noaa answered with equal anger. “I was taught the same thing; the Force is; it spreads throughout the galaxy, binding and penetrating, real but utterly unquantifiable. To think anything else is heresy. So I’m going to give you some heresy right here, right now – the Force is real; it’s quantifiable. It can be detected. It can be measured. I’ve done it *myself*.”

This was actually something Luke already knew. He’d discovered the truth just after his Academy was attacked, but he was so obsessed with his search for the Source that he’d brushed it aside as unimportant at the time. He had some questions, but Dar Noaa was obviously not yet finished speaking.

 “And now,” the Sith continued, “it can also be collected and contained - using the same technology that was able to collect and contain the mass of a star. And somebody is doing it.”

“Wait!” Luke raised a hand to stop Dar Noaa. “Are you telling me that the reason there are no more Force-sensitives being born is because somebody has been, what? Stealing the Force? Do you know how that sounds?”

“It sounds like heresy,” Dar Noaa replied bitterly. “At least, that’s what the Jedi Council said when I told them. They were so polite; they patted this heretic on the head and told me they would consider it.”

“You met with the Jedi?”

“Your sister arranged it for me.”

“Yes,” Luke understood the connection now. That time he’d met Dar Noaa must have been when he was seeking Leia’s help. This was an unspoken lie; Luke inferred that he had known about his sister’s involvement, when in fact he hadn’t. “I remember. If I assume that you’re right; that someone has found a way to capture the Force and hold onto it; I have to ask to what end?”

Dar Noaa’s eyes darkened as he considered his next words for a few seconds.

“This is where heresy becomes madness, Jedi,” the Sith said. “Time and time again, we’ve had Force-sensitives who seriously believed they could become immortal, become all powerful, that they could literally become the Force itself. There’s no metaphysical way to do that, so they would always turn to real physics, to technology, for the tools they needed. First, they ran experiments, testing ways to identify Force-sensitives, and we were all so eager to assist in that experiment, weren’t we? Jedi and Sith, racing each other to find the best of breed for our side. We've been helping for centuries, too; doing everything we could to achieve the final product; Force-sensitives capable of hosting unimaginable amounts of power. They were powerful, but they were flawed. We saw it. *You* saw it. For the Sith, a defect discovered was a defect purged. For the Jedi, however, it was looked on as a special gift…”

The look on Luke’s face made Dar Noaa pause. He realized that he’d just stepped into dangerous territory; he was no match for this Jedi Master should it come to blows.

“Believe me,” the Sith spoke quietly now, “you have my sympathy. Had I been in your situation, I probably would have done the same as you. Your sister…”

“Leave my sister out of this.”

“Of course,” Dar Noaa gestured apologetically. “I know I’m doing this poorly, but I must make you understand because I need your help. Desperately.  The First Order is nothing more than the latest tool being used; and the Starkiller wasn’t built for an attack, it was built for a *harvest*. Now only a few of us remain.”

 _Finally,_ Luke thought, _here it comes…_

“If I’m correct in my madness, somebody has been steadily siphoning away the Force, containing it, storing it, amassing more and more until now there is only a small amount left to be harvested. Once that’s done, nothing will remain to bind us, so the galaxy - and all of us - will simply cease to exist.”

Suddenly Luke realized he needed that drink after all.

 

…………

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

 

-6-

 

Night had fallen.

From her spot on a crate in the second floor of Maz Katana’s home, Rey was in a perfect place to watch the little planet’s sun set. One by one, the squat buildings of the tiny town became silhouettes against the darkening sky, then slowly came to life again as hundreds of chem-lights placed in windows and over doors sensed the dark and turned on, making the town look like a tiny galaxy floating in the darkness. The familiar feeling of isolation fell over Rey, even though she was sitting in the room with both Chewbacca and Maz. Master Luke had not yet joined them, and now that she’d spent some time with the Jedi Master, Rey found his absence troubling. Maz and Chewbacca were involved in conversation with each other, so she was once again and as always, alone among strangers.

Across from Rey, Maz was seated high on of one her crates, just above Chewbacca, who was sitting on the floor next to her. Telling Maz the story of how Han Solo had died left the Wookie utterly drained, so now he was resting his head against Maz’s thigh while she petted his head gently to comfort him. Just listening had been torture for Rey; she’d had no chance to really get to know the man before…

 _No_ , she thought. _Don’t go there._

“My poor dear child,” Maz was speaking to Chewbacca, not to Rey. “You always knew this night had to come. I remember the first time you brought him to meet me; he was so young, so sure of himself, so unaware. I reminded you then that you would not get to keep him.”

Chewbacca purred sadly.

“But you were right about him,” Maz continued. “In his own way, he was a joy.” Then Maz remembered Rey and looked over at her.

“In this galaxy, there are many Sentients who can live a very long time, Rey,” she said. “Chewbacca has seen more than two hundred years pass, and me; I have seen a millennium, give or take a few centuries. Time and time again, we find those we can love – and then we lose them. Found, then lost. Joy, then sorrow. It’s the relentless cycle of our lives,” Maz paused for a second, remembering, then sighed softly. “So we try to stay objective about it; we try not to become attached to those who we know cannot linger in our lives for long. But in the end, we find we simply cannot endure life without love. So, since long ago, long before Han Solo was born, before his parents were born, and maybe even before his grandparents were born; long before Chewbacca brought Han Solo to meet me; Chewbacca and I have loved each other. We're… true friends.”

The Wookie purred again, this time affectionately.

“Han Solo,” Mazz stroked her tiny fingers through the Wookie’s hair, carefully loosening any knots she felt there. “We will not know another like him. He was our heart.”

 

…………

 

Downstairs, the clay jug was now empty.

Hours had passed as the Jedi and the Sith, fortified by strong drink, talked and made a few personal discoveries. Luke discovered that, despite his heritage, the Sith answered his questions with directness and patience.  Dar Noaa discovered that, although uneducated, the Jedi asked intelligent questions and understood his explanations.  And they’d arrived at agreement on a few important rules.

Rule number one: _Don’t die._ This was supremely important because so far, all they had was each other.

Rule number two _: Find, warn and protect any remaining Force-sensitives -_ as long as it didn’t result in violating Rule One. Exactly how to find, warn and protect other Force-sensitives was something that was still in negotiations…

“Using the Force to contact others is not an option,” Dar Noaa said. “There’s a real risk that you could be traced. And I’ve been told that it’s being blocked anyway.”

“Yes,” Luke replied.

“So there is no *easy* way,” Dar Noaa shook his head, trying to clear his thinking. Whatever Maz Katana had served them, it was indeed strong. “All of my resources went out with the Republic. I’ll need to find contacts I can trust, materials I can use and, most important of all, access to information.”

“I see two possibilities,” Luke said. “The first is the Resistance. My sister is… resourceful.”

“She’s alive?” the Sith seemed genuinely glad to hear it. “Are you sure?’

“The other possibility,” Luke ignored the stupid question; of course he was sure.  He’d have to ask Maz what was in that jug. “is the First Order.”

Dar Noaa’s eyes flickered, but he said nothing. He had thought of this already, but dismissed it instantly as impossible. As far as he knew, the First Order Homeland and the behemoth that was the Finalizer were both intact and probably unaffected by the mass hysteria that now gripped the galaxy, which meant they had everything he needed.  They also had a very bad attitude about sharing; approaching them could have only one outcome, which clearly violated Rule number one. And until this moment, he had believed that the Resistance almost certainly hadn’t survived, either; so he hadn’t considered approaching them at all. Now the impossible was starting to look improbable, which was actually a giant step in the right direction when one thought about it.

“If you can find the Resistance,” Luke said, “they will help.”

“You?” the Sith asked. “Don’t you mean *we*?”

“I can’t go with you.”

“What?”

“I have…” Luke knew how this would to sound to the Sith; it was often the way a LPJedi issued a polite refusal to a request. “…  a … prior… commitment.”

“What?!!!” Dar Noaa’s tone demanded an explanation.

There could be no explanation because Luke had not mentioned that upstairs in this very building, Maz Katana and Chewbacca were babysitting his new Padawan. If everything the Sith believed was in fact true, then protecting Rey was paramount.  They would have to go back to the island, remove any trace that they had ever been there, then find a new place to hide her, in a location that not even Maz Katana would know about.  None of that would be shared with the Sith.

“This is a delay, not a denial, “Luke said. “Find the Resistance. Find my sister. I promise, as soon as I can, I will find you both.”

“Is your “commitment” truly that important?” Dar Noaa asked.

“Yes.” Luke stressed the word. Then he added, “When you find them, you’ll need a way to convince Leia that you’ve seen me. She’ll ask for a password. *Dagobah*. Remember it.”  

Dar Noaa opened his mouth to say something, but stopped. Both of them felt the return of the young Sith before he appeared in the archway.

“Four, maybe five,” the young Sith addressed himself to Dar Noaa, answering a question that had not been asked. “They *stink* of the Republic.”

“Well, Jedi,” the Sith rose from his seat, “It seems our meeting is at an end.”

“The Republic?” Luke got to his feet, too.

“Long story,” Dar Noaa yanked his hood up. “Short story is I have something they want. I needed it to get here, to find you. They’ve been trailing us since I left, before Starkiller. I had hopes that they’d forget about me now the Republic is gone, but I seriously underestimated the value of what I “borrowed” from the Institute… "

“We need to go,” the young Sith interrupted, insisting. “Now.”

“Promise me, “Dar Noaa extended a hand to Luke, “that you won’t die.”

Luke reached out, too, with his left, his living hand; he grasped Dar Noaa’s hand firmly. This was the first time he had ever touched a Sith without violent intent, and it felt oddly ordinary. There was no evil, no darkness; it was just flesh touching flesh.

“I promise.”

Dar Noaa released Luke’s hand, then the two Sith vanished through the archway into the darkness beyond.

 

Now alone in the little room, Luke realized how late it was - and how tired he was. As he made his way to the stairs that led to the second floor, he thought about what Maz Katana would have to say about all this. She was going to have a lot to say, and not just about this.  As he climbed the steps, Luke decided he was not going to waste energy on anticipation; he just too old and too tired.  He looked up at the landing to the second floor, and saw Maz standing there.

“Not four or five,” she told him, her eyes huge with dread. “More like *twenty*!”

Luke instantly turned around, bounded back down the steps, across the floor, shoved open the door and stepped into the alley outside.  He paused just long enough to sense the right direction before racing off into the darkness.

 

Luke was out of sight by the time Chewbacca and Rey reached the door and then the alley, but the Wookie was able to follow him by scent alone.  Chewbacca could have easily caught up to Luke, but he knew his place was with the girl.  They hurried through the alley, then through the dark and empty streets, through the deserted marketplace, then back into the streets again. They were almost to the city gate when suddenly Luke stepped out in front of them. He didn’t speak; he put a finger to his lips and pointed over his shoulder, then turned and led them slowly, silently, forward.

Not far ahead, the street ended at a dark open space, beyond which they could just detect the barrier of the town’s outer wall. Several dim lights were swaying in the dark, and they gave just enough illumination to reveal two figures standing back to back, surrounded by a circle of other figures; maybe eight, maybe ten, Rey couldn’t see well enough to make a count.  She could hear words in a language she did not recognize, but the threatening nature of those words needed no translation. There was a moment of silence, enough time for someone to consider and choose an appropriate response, before one of the two figures in the center of the circle spoke.

“No.”

The violence erupted instantly.

At first, it was difficult to follow the action in the dark. Rey saw dim flashes of metal in motion and heard the sound of impacts, some metal on metal, some flesh on flesh, even the sickening sound of metal meeting flesh.  She looked at Master Luke; he was just standing there watching; his hand raised to keep them in place. Chewbacca growled quietly at Luke.

“No,” Luke whispered. “We wait.”

Suddenly it fell quiet.  There was a small cloud of dust swirling in the gloom like a fog, and in the center of that fog, the two figures were still standing back to back, swaying and breathing heavily.  Then one of the figures turned to face them.

“You might have *helped*, you know!”

It was the voice Rey had heard just before the fighting started. Groaning softly to himself, Master Luke entered the space and approached the figures.

“I’m going to,” the Jedi Master said in a loud whisper, “in about five seconds!”

Five seconds was just enough time for Rey to process what Master Luke was saying. She looked around wildly, searching the gloom for any signs of movement, and she quickly saw it coming. They came from the street behind them; they came out of an unseen squeeze hole somewhere in the wall. They seemed to come from all directions at once, and every one of them was out for blood. Rey was raising her staff to meet their attack when Chewbacca pushed her down, into a shadow, out of sight and out of the flow. But she was only down for a second, just long enough to stretch out the staff and trip the next attacker that passed, causing a chain reaction pileup in the street. Chewbacca quickly took advantage there.  Rey got to her feet and was immediately struck on her side by something that was flesh, not metal, and she twisted herself just far enough to punch her attacker squarely in the face. The attacker went down hard and Rey made sure he stayed down with a sharp blow to his head. Looking up and around, Rey saw that the action had passed her; there was fierce fighting happening there, ahead of her.

Master Luke had not drawn his light saber; instead he was fighting off his attackers with their own weapons. One lunged at him with a long metal blade, but Luke grabbed it with his artificial hand and then turned the attacker’s arm until the blade found a new target.  Another attacker raised his weapon to strike, but the weapon suddenly dropped from his hand - and then Master Luke seemed to toss him across the space and slam him into a wall without even touching him!

Luke Skywalker, Jedi Master, was magnificent to see.

But he was also outnumbered and in danger and Rey was not about to lose anybody else. She threw herself forward, into the fight, the rage building inside her with every blow she delivered.

 

……………….

 

 

Many star systems away, it was midday. 

A pretty, bright-eyed young woman made her way along the busy streets until she arrived at a small, dingy shop. Once inside, she approached the proprietor and asked; had he’d received any fresh Kenna today? The proprietor grunted and led her to a door in the far end of his shop. He knocked three times on the door, and then quickly walked away.

 _What I really hate about this job is the damned drama._ The pretty woman thought. _One properly encoded message is all we need, but no, they have to have it their way._

_They deserve this, if only for wasting my time._

The door creaked open, and the girl stepped inside. The Knight was there, waiting for her as expected.  He pulled a tiny data capsule from the nasty-looking pouch that he wore around his neck and held it out in his gloved hand, offering it to her.  She smiled sweetly as she took it from him.

“Thank you,” she said. “The First Order values your service.”

No reply.

“And for myself,” she went on,” I have to say how relieved I am that you’re all taking this so very well, considering…”

No reply.

“… I mean, it’s wonderful that you’re putting loyalty to the Order above loyalty to your Code…”

No reply, but she noticed that one of the gloved hands had just curled into a loose fist.

“… I didn’t expect that.”

The fist tightened. She was making progress now.

“I thought the Code was absolute.”

No reply.

The Knight took a step closer to her, probably examining her closely from behind that mask. He was almost in position, precisely where she wanted him.  Just a few words more should do it.

“Time was, the Knights of Ren wouldn’t tolerate their Kylo taking a female for himself,” she said. “But then, I suppose times change… don’t they?”

No reply.

“It’s too bad,” she leaned close to him and whispered, “that you can’t just make her… go away… and spare yourselves the disgrace.”

No reply.

She put her hand on the Knight’s armored arm, and then gave him her most heartfelt, most sympathetic, most *pitying* smile before she left him there to think about what she’d said.  

 

 

……………………………….

 

 

Back on that little planet in the Outer Rim, in that little town, in that open space by the wall, the fight was finally over. The sky overhead had gone from black to gray and now was showing hints of blue as dawn approached.  The last of the attackers had just been finished off by the young Sith, who dispatched him with a quick jerk of his neck.  The growing light revealed all now, and Rey was stunned to see it. She was still trying to take it all in, to put it into perspective, when the wild-looking young man they’d just rescued suddenly appeared right in front of her. He was bloodied, but had no serious looking injuries.  Staring directly into her eyes, he reached up to his left ear, grabbed one of his earrings, and *tore* it loose. And then he grabbed Rey’s hand, turned it over, and placed the bloody ornament in the center of her palm. Horrified, Rey looked to Master Luke for guidance, but the Jedi Master wasn’t paying any attention to her. He was looking at the other rescue, the older one, the one who spoke before, the one who was now staring intently at her, as if he *knew* her. She saw Master Luke move his hand; she saw him grasp his light saber...

 

Sensing the danger, Dar Noaa snapped out of his fascination with the girl and turned to face Luke.

“This changes *nothing*, Jedi!” he said loudly, “Except that I understand now why you aren’t coming along.”

To his great relief, Dar Noaa saw the Jedi Master relax his grip on the weapon.

 

Maz Katana had been hiding in the shadows, watching the fight, but now she recognized that she should intervene before things went off track.

“What a mess!” She announced her presence to them.  Chewbacca greeted her warmly with a triumphant growl, but she was not pleased. “I am not cleaning this up.”

She looked at the Siths.

“You two should go. Now.”

She pointed to the hole in the wall, and the two quickly squeezed through it and were gone. Then she turned to Rey, who was still holding the young Sith’s earring in her hand.

“Hmmmmm,” Maz flipped on her biggest goggles and examined the trinket. “I’d say that this is either a life debt - or a marriage proposal.”

Rey closed her fist to throw the disgusting thing away, but Maz took hold of her wrist, stopping her.

“No," Maz commanded, “you hold on to this. It has *value*.”

Finally, Maz turned her eyes onto Luke.

“It’s been a long night,” she told him. “We have a lot to discuss and not much time to do it. Come back to my house; we’ll have something to eat first...”

Then she led them back to her home using a different route so they could avoid any early risers. By the time anybody discovered the scene, then made the report and started the rumors, they would be all be long gone.

 

………..


	7. Chapter 7

  -7-

 

Aboard the resistance transport, which was now half way to its hopefully secret new destination, the early excitement of escape had cooled and now there was nothing but the stress of constantly being on alert for action that didn’t come.  The ship had only encountered two checkpoints so far and at both of those, the ship’s Registration transponder signal alone satisfied First Order’s curiosity, so the ship passed through without any direct contact at all. But the relief of every bypass lasted only a short while before the stress began to build again.

_This is too easy._

At least, that’s the way Poe Dameron saw it from the cockpit of his X-wing. Being on Alert all the time meant sticking close by, which wasn’t a problem for Poe, since he enjoyed sleeping in the cockpit.  When his comrades would mock him about it, he would reply that it was ‘like sleeping his mother’s arms’. It was one of his favorite things to say, right up until the moment he said it to Finn. Medical had cleared Finn to extend his rehabilitation walks as far as the ship’s hanger, and Finn would use the opportunity visit Poe, since Poe could not come to visit him.

Poe was sitting in the cockpit, canopy open, just passing time doing as little as possible when he saw Finn coming. Finn’s approach was more like a parade than a walk; he made his way across the hanger slowly, BB8 at his side, while every single being on the hanger floor waved or whooted and called to him as he passed. The little droid had abandoned Poe for Finn just as soon as Finn was awake and able to move around a bit, so now Poe hardly saw it at all, except when it would show up with a message from Finn. Even at those times, BB8 would be all business, as if it was anxious to get back to the reluctant hero of the Starkiller mission.

Perhaps BB8 could see something that Poe didn’t. There was no question that the Finn who was now approaching was not the First Order deserter that rescued him from the Finalizer; Poe could see that. It was natural that the trauma Finn suffered would have a maturing effect on him; that happened to everyone. Poe remembered how he’d felt after his first kill.

_Taking life does something to you; it leaves a mark._

Finn’s actions had saved the Resistance, but at the cost of thousands of lives, some of which belonged to beings that Finn might have known personally; that was a steep price to pay for being a hero. Right about now, Finn should be an emotional tornado, and he was; but there was something else that was different about Finn now, too. Whenever they were together, Poe would get an odd, unsettling feeling; as if he was on the verge of remembering something he shouldn’t have forgotten; but Poe couldn’t remember what that something was.

When Finn finally stopped just below Poe’s ship, Poe shot up both arms in a salute.

“You really sleep in there?” Finn called up.

“Like sleeping in my mother’s arms… oh…,” Poe remembered Finn’s history and felt terrible about what he’d just said, so he quickly swung his body over the side of the X-wing and slid down the ladder, landing beside Finn. “Sorry.” Finn shrugged, no harm done. Poe leaned over and gave BB8 a welcoming pat. “are you taking good care of this guy?”

The little droid replied with a chirp, then rolled itself close to Finn’s feet and settled there.

“Hey, Finn!”  Another comrade called out as he passed,” Great to see you out and about!”

Finn made a small gesture and a tiny smile that vanished as soon as the comrade looked away.

“Suddenly I seem to have a lot of new friends.”

“Absolutely,” Poe replied, “Right now, you are *the* hero of the resistance; everybody in this hanger will gladly buy you a drink, a dinner, a new pair of boots.”

“I’m no hero.”

“Like hell you aren’t!” Poe insisted.” You went up against someone… there’s no word for him, is there… and you’re still alive to talk about it. That is something nobody here has ever heard of; not anywhere, anytime, ever.” When that failed to elicit a smile from Finn, Poe added, “And you saved the fair maiden.”

“Actually, she saved me.”

“I know, but it sounds so much better the way I tell it.”

Finn made a face, but didn’t answer. Instead, he looked up past Poe to the X-Wing.

“Talk about heroes,” Finn said, “I wish I could fly like you do. These things are mysteries to me. Give me an intake valve or a condenser unit, and I’m a genius; but put me in one of these and I’m useless.”

“You wanna *fly?*” Poe’s eyes lit up,” Hey, as soon as your back can stand it, I’ll take you up and teach you everything you need to know.”

“I’d like that,” Finn answered, “a lot.”

“We can start right now, in a way,” Poe pointed to the X-Wing, “I was just about to take a look at the ventral exhaust; there didn’t seem to be enough flow-through when I pulled out of a dive at that last supply pickup. That was one nasty planet. I was thinking it was an atmospheric density thing, but there were a lot of flying things there, too; maybe something got sucked in. So, I’m going to pull the rings and check to make sure there isn’t something gunking up the turbine…”

“Welcome to my world;” Finn grinned.

 

Accessing the turbine wasn’t very difficult; once they’d pulled the outer retaining bolts and lifted out the cap ring, they easily saw the remains of some unfortunate creature splattered throughout the turbine. Shreds of leathery wings dangled from where they’d stuck to hot metal and baked body fluids decorated the turbine blades.

“Poor little whateveritwas,” Poe shook his head in mock grief. “That’s what he gets for messing with my baby.”

“Let’s get to it, then,” Finn automatically reached for the cleaning solvent and some rags. “There’s only one way to fix this; get in there and clean it all out. If even a tiny piece of the contaminant gets missed, there’s a huge risk that the turbine could catch, then lock up and break outright. The procedure for manually cleaning a clogged turbine is solvent, wipe, polish, one sixteenth turn of the blades, repeat…”

“The First Order,” Poe laughed, “has trained you well, Finn!”

For the next half hour, Poe found himself relegated to the role of assistant while Finn leaned deeper and deeper into the turbine channel, rubbing, pulling, polishing, then sliding back out and ordering Poe to rotate the turbine so the process could continue. They had very little conversation between them beyond Finn’s orders or questions and Poe’s replies, so the work was proceeding very quickly. Poe watched Finn’s legs jerk as he changed position inside the turbine and wondered if this had been a bad idea. He’d thought giving Finn something familiar to concentrate on might help him adjust to his new circumstances, that’s why he’d thrown that poor whateveritwas into the turbine intake in the first place. But now that Finn was in there, doing work he was trained for and good at, Poe saw the First Order in him asserting itself. Of course it would; the First Order had been Finn’s entire life. Now that Finn was with the Resistance, how could anyone be sure that the First Order would not reassert itself through Finn in ways that could hurt them badly? Poe already liked Finn a great deal, perhaps too much; so he would have to remind himself to stay aware that despite what Finn had done for the Resistance so far, Finn was still very much an unknown. And now the strange uneasiness was back, nagging at him again. If only he could remember…

There was the sound of flesh bumping against metal, followed by a curse, and then Finn slid out of the turbine and practically fell to his feet on the work floor below.

“I need a break.”

Finn said it in a matter of fact voice, but Poe could clearly see that he was in real pain. This was meant to be therapy, not torture, and Poe felt bad that he hadn’t realized it sooner.

“We sure do,” Poe knew better than to sound sympathetic or pitying. He gestured to a metal bench that was behind the X-wing, up against the hanger wall and somewhat isolated from the activity there. “How about there?”

“Looks good,” Finn nodded and started walking. BB8 immediately came to life and rolled after, taking position beside Finn and leaving Poe to catch up. From behind, Poe could see how difficult it was for Finn; every step he took forward was hard labor, but Finn refused to let it show on his face. Finn reached the bench first, turned around and sat down; getting the weight off his legs must have relieved some of the pain because he immediately closed his eyes and let out a sigh.

“Meds not working?” Poe sat beside his friend, trying to mask his own concern.

“Not taking them,” Finn replied, his eyes still closed. “They make me sleep and when I sleep, I have… weird dreams.”

“Yeah,” Poe said, “you get those… sometimes. They can give you something for that.”

“They did.” Finn opened his eyes. “Didn’t help.”

“Oh.”

“Then they had me spend some time with a counselor,” Finn frowned. “That *really* didn’t help.”

“Don’t take it personally; around here, we all get counseled sooner or later,” Poe said. To the Resistance, “counseling” meant sharing one’s feelings, but Poe was sure that whatever “counseling” under the First Order meant, that meaning did not include anything remotely like sharing. In Poe’s case, “counseling” was invariably about risk-taking, and despite numerous sessions, Poe’s assessment of the result was about the same as Finn’s. It came down to them being concerned that Poe was going to get himself killed and Poe deciding that he didn’t care about that. “Just go along with whatever they say, and eventually they’ll leave you alone.”

Finn looked at him and managed a smile.

“And you know,” Poe studied his friend for a minute, and then leaned far forward, resting his elbows on his thighs and his face on his hands, “if you need to talk, I’m right here.”

"It's not just the weird dreams, Poe, it’s about my back," Finn said.

“I thought they said you were going to be fine.”

“They did,” Finn replied. “It’s not that. Somebody in medical told me that the wound wasn’t meant to kill me.”

“Then somebody’s an idiot.” Poe seemed surprised, even shocked by the news.

“For some reason, I was spared…”

“No,” Poe cut him off. “You were *lucky*. I’m an authority on that subject.”

“Was I?”

“Oh, let me think about it.., uh, *yes*. Lucky.”

Silence.

Poe could see that Finn wanted to tell him something right now, but just couldn’t make a start on the words. A lifetime of holding words back was a hard habit to break. Poe knew he didn't fully understand what Finn's life must have been like under the First Order, but he could appreciate how such a life would make somebody completely paranoid; even one word uttered in error would bring punishment. The First Order had trained him well indeed.

“This isn't the First Order, Finn," Poe said quietly. "Nobody's watching. Nobody's listening.”

For a moment, Finn seemed to be caught in some internal debate; his expression changing from anxious to angry. Sensing that the debate was over, Poe waited to see what which side had won; would it be the First Order or the Resistance pilot?

When I told you about me and the First Order,” Finn spoke slowly, as if every word he uttered was dangerous, “I left something out; there was a reason I helped you escape.”

“I know the reason,” Poe replied. “You wanted to get away from the First Order. That’s a damned good reason and I’m grateful for it.”

“Yes, that’s true; but there was another reason,” Finn lowered his head, took a breath, and then looked at Poe. “Back on Jakku, when I made my choice to run - he saw me. He *knew*.”

“Who saw you?”

“Ren.”

Hearing that name caused an instant, unpleasant ache inside Poe’s head. A brief flash of memory; the black mask, the pain; and something else…

“Real charmer, that one,” Poe quipped, hiding his fear behind a sarcastic smile, pushing the memory back into the shadows of his mind.

“He was walking past me,” Finn went on, “back to his shuttle; and the instant I decided – I mean the *very* instant – he stopped, he turned and - he looked straight at me. I could tell that somehow he… *knew*. Then, he just turned and walked away.  From that moment on, I knew that if I stayed on the Finalizer, I was a dead man. That’s why I rescued you.”

"Finn, my friend,” Poe grinned. “The why doesn't matter when the how works out."

“You don’t understand,” Finn lowered his voice to a whisper, “that’s something that *never* happens. You don’t know what he’s like…”

“Yes. I. do.”

“No, what you got was nothing, Poe,” Finn continued. “There are stories I could tell you. Things I’ve heard; things I’ve seen. He could have broken my neck right then just for what I was thinking, with nothing more than a wave of his hand…”

Poe nodded in silent agreement; he remembered the blaster bolt suspended in midair, his entire body paralyzed, helpless, then the agony inside his skull.

“… and that’s what should have happened. But it didn’t.”

“So, he didn’t kill you;” Poe replied, “that doesn’t mean anything; it’s just how things worked out. Maybe he was just… *busy*… ”

“It’s not funny, Poe,” Finn’s eyes narrowed as he spoke. “I should be dead. Two times over, I should be dead.”

“So what?” Poe’s response was more argument than question. “Okay, so you’re not dead; I should be dead, too, but he didn’t kill me, either - and I don’t care why not! It’s over, it’s done. We got out alive; that’s all that matters.”

“I know, but,” Finn looked away, towards nothing in particular. “I can’t get rid of this feeling that it’s not over at all….”

“You know what this is?” Poe put a reassuring hand on Finn’s shoulder. “He got into your head and messed with it; he hurt Rey and then he hurt you. You’re making a big deal out of this because it’s your first time getting beaten and you’re trying to protect yourself from facing the fact.  You *lost*. I bet the First Order never gave you any training for that.”

“No,” Finn said, “they didn’t. Defeat is not an option.”

 _Rote repetition_ , Poe noted to himself. _Maybe I should say something…_

The sound of a proximity alert, followed almost immediately by the scramble alarm erased his thoughts. Automatically, he leaped to his feet and raced back to his X-wing. He was already in the cockpit when Finn caught up to him. BB8 rolled beneath the X-wing in order to join Poe, but when it found an old R-unit was already installed and online, the little droid beeped its alarm, calling out to Poe, but to no avail.

“Wait” Finn shouted from the deck below. “The cap ring - it’s still off!”

“Won’t need the turbine!” The cockpit was closing on Poe as he shouted back. “This is *space*!”

“No!” Finn was shouting at the closed canopy now. “That’s not how it wor… !!”

But it was too late; Poe’s attention was already focused solely on his mission and he wasn’t listening anymore.

Finn heard the X-wing power up, so he quickly stepped back, out of the way, to avoid getting hit by the thrusters as the ship lifted off the deck, and watched Poe’s ship rise and then take off. As it moved away, Finn could hear the sound of the uncapped turbine vibrating within its housing - just as he’d feared it would.  It was true the turbine was only powered up for atmospheric flight, but without the ring cap to stabilize it, the turbine would pick up vibrations from the ship; usually no big deal, but this time the turbine would never hit harmonic, it would just shift from frequency to frequency with every maneuver and there would be no way for the aged R-unit onboard to compensate for it, which meant, that despite his extraordinary ability, Poe wouldn’t even be able to pilot the ship accurately, much less hit anything with his weapons.  Finn had to warn Poe that his X-wing was now little more than a target, so he rushed off as fast as his body would permit to find somebody, anybody, who could talk to Poe now; with BB8 rolling at his side.

 

The second he found himself outside the transport hanger bay hatch, Poe realized that something was not right. The ship flew straight as expected, but when he made his first combat maneuver, a simple turn toward the attacking ships, the X-wing over-steered, forcing him to compensate manually.

“What was that?” he asked his droid.

The Message screen replied:  What?

“The ship just went 2 degrees off course.”

Message screen reply: No.

“Don’t tell me no, I just had to pull her back!”

Message screen reply: Running diagnostics.

“There’s no time for that!”

Message screen reply: Running diagnostics.

“Dammit!”

By now, Poe was rapidly approaching the intruders; there were two of them and at first, they appeared to be freighters, but Poe could see that they were heavily armed, converted to another purpose.

Raiders.

They probably picked up the transport’s transponder signal and decided it would be an easy kill. Right now, they were still in shock from seeing the transport ship they’d just jumped respond to their presence with a trio of  X-wings, but that wouldn’t last for long; they would quickly decide the best course of action was to retreat. Poe knew if the raiders escaped, they would jump to someplace where they could contact the First Order directly and sell the true identity of the transport. Such a profitable piece of information would not be transmitted until they were sure they could do so privately and thus get the reward, so he must engage and destroy them before they could make the jump.  The two raider ships must have realized this, too, because they were already turning away.

“Don’t let them jump!” Poe shouted into his comlink. “Go straight for the primaries!”

Poe targeted one of the raider ships and fired.

And missed.

For an instant, Poe was confused. This never happened, not to him.

One of the other two X-wings made the shot, crippling one of the raiders, then followed through with a clean shot to the core and the raider ship blew apart. Now it was deadly shrapnel; huge chunks of it hurtling in all directions.  Rusk took a bad hit, his X-wing went careening off wildly. Sorna had to make a sharp turn in order to avoid the same fate, and was now coming around to pursue, but too far behind to catch up in time.  Now only Poe remained intact and in range, and the remaining raider was accelerating away. 

Poe aimed and fired again. And missed again.

“R-2”, Poe shouted into his comlink, “What. Is. The. Problem. Here?”

Message screen reply: Irregular vibration detected. Unable to compensate.

“Dammit!”

Poe was on his own.

He was coming up on the fleeing raider quickly now, but the X-wing was fighting every maneuver he attempted. Trying to hold course while aiming was impossible, and if he was going to stop that ship before it could jump, it would be pure luck.

“Poe!” It was Sorna on the comlink. “There’s something behind you! It’s coming up *fast*… what is that?”

“R-2?” Poe asked.

Message screen reply: Undetermined.

“Dammit!” Poe strained his neck to see behind him; there was a small bright yellow object speeding directly toward his tail. There was no evading it, so Poe braced himself for the impact…

Just as it reached the X-wing’s outspread S-foils, the yellow light suddenly spiraled out, clearing them by mere millimeters, then it spiraled forward around the fuselage, skimming the X-wing’s skin and nearly blinding Poe with its light, passing him, then it slipped over the X-wing’s nose and shot off straight in front of it. Poe could only watch in stunned silence as the light sped away from him, heading toward the fleeing raider.  The raider was literally dissolving into hyperspace when the light touched it - but instead of vanishing, the raider ship became a brilliant ball of yellow light.

And then it was gone.

Poe was staring in disbelief, watching the last of the yellow fade into darkness, when his comlink started to roar with excited voices.

“Did you see *that*?”

“What the hell?”

Poe! Poe! Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Poe found his voice. “And I do not know. But…” he paused as he saw a new message from his R-unit.

Message : Unidentified vessel approaching transport.

“What now!?” Poe’s display showed nothing but a blur where the new intruder should be and no identity code at all, so he twisted himself around in his seat to see if he could get a look at it.

It was there, all right; something dark and sleek; about the size of a troop landing transport, but its shape was difficult to make out because it seemed to blend into the black space behind it. Poe had no idea what it was, but it was heading directly toward the Transport, so he wrestled his X-wing around to intercept it. Then over his comlink, he heard:

“All X-wing fighters; stand down. Now.” This time it was general Organa’s voice. “Stay clear of the hanger bay until the arriving vessel has docked.”

Poe fired his retros, bringing his X-wing to almost full stop, and watched as the intruder vessel approached the open hanger bay door.  The hanger lights began to reveal it; It was indeed dark in color, deep gray, maybe, it was hard to tell because of contrast glare.  It was ovoid in shape, with no trace of outboard stabilizers, but it did seem drawn out in the tail. Suddenly red lights betrayed that it had ports, and then a series of smaller red running lights came on to illuminate its lower half.

 _No landing gear._ Poe noticed. _No struts, nothing. How is it…?_

Then he lost sight of it as it slipped inside the hanger bay door.

 

Some minutes later, much too long by his count, Poe set his X-wing down on the hanger floor. As fast as he could, Poe popped his canopy, tossed his helmet into the back, practically threw himself over the side and slid down the ladder. When he turned from his landing, he found Finn standing there, blocking his view and his way.

You’re an idiot!” Finn’s voice was an odd mix of anger and relief. “How could you have forgotten about the ring cap? The vibration…”

“I didn’t forget about the ring cap,” Poe tried to look past Finn, to see where the visitor had landed. “I forgot that *you* have BB8 now.”  This was the simple truth; in his excitement to get out there, Poe had forgotten that he didn’t have his trusted  BB8 along for the ride. Poe wasn’t sure that the newer droid could have compensated for the vibrations, but suggesting that it could effectively pushed the blame onto Finn and might get him out of the way.  He stepped around Finn, searching. “Where is she? I’ve got to get a look at her!” Then he spotted it, across the hanger deck, partially obscured above by overhanging equipment and totally obscured below by a crowd of assorted resistance personnel.

“Come on!” He was almost running as he shouted back to Finn. 

Finn shrugged and followed, making his way along carefully because he’d been moving much too much and his back was screaming for meds now.  The visitor held little interest for him.

 

When Poe reached the crowd, it parted instantly for him. Every one of his comrades knew two things about Poe Dameron; the first was that he was the best natural pilot they’d ever seen, and second was that nobody should get between Poe Dameron and anything that could fly. Poe found himself looking down a short aisle of open space that led straight to the visitor; on both sides, beings stood back and waited expectantly for him to pass. None of them had ever seen a ship like this visitor, and they all anticipated Poe’s reaction to it. Now Poe was standing in front of the crowd, nothing remaining to block his view.

“I think I’m in love.”

Amused laughter spread through the crowd, but Poe was now completely unaware of them.

“Look at her, Finn,” he had no idea that Finn was still far behind him. “She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen!”

Indeed, the visitor was as beautiful as it was odd. Poe saw that three stubby “legs” had appeared on the underside, just enough to prevent the ship from resting directly on the deck below. The fuselage, or was it a hull, was entirely covered in a dark material that Poe had never seen before. It seemed to defy the light now pouring down it; contrast and shadow were simply not there, so even now, fully illuminated, it was difficult to see. A single arched door was open, but what lay inside was hidden in dark.

“What’s that skin made of? Can you see how it’s… changing?” Poe jabbered like an excited child. “And where are the stabilizers? How can it fly in an atmosphere without stabilizers? How can it…?” Out of breath, he had to stop long enough to grab some air and lost the thought in the process.  “Oh, what I would give to take her out…”

“Be careful what you wish for, young pilot.”

The voice from behind him was deep and mature – definitely not Finn!

Poe jerked himself around to see who had just spoken.  Humanoid, civilian clothes, male, very mature. The face had two small tattoos and disturbing honey-colored eyes, one of which was badly bruised and almost swollen closed.  Poe saw no hostility, but there was an air about this visitor that gave warning that he was something more than met the eyes, and one should approach with caution. He must have been right there the whole time, watching Poe make a complete gushing fool of himself. For once in his life, Poe Dameron was speechless.  A tense silence fell over the crowd, as the visitor took a step closer and studied Poe briefly, then crossed his arms, leaned in and looked straight into his eyes for a few seconds.  There was something familiar about it, something that made Poe very uncomfortable, even a bit frightened.

“Dar Na!” the visitor shouted without taking his eyes off Poe.

The entire crowd was startled by the shout, but before they could react, movement at the dark ship’s door grabbed their eyes.  Another visitor had appeared there; this one was different from the first, much bigger in stature, and younger - and his face was covered in colors. There was an audible gasp in the crowd as one by one they realized what they were looking at, but none were bold enough to say the word aloud.

The visitor at the door shouted back in a language nobody understood.

“Dar Na,” the visitor’s gaze remained on Poe. “Give this … pilot… a look inside.”

The visitor at the door grunted.

“Go.” The visitor gestured toward the open door.  

Poe obeyed instantly. 

 

As he watched the young pilot fearlessly walking off into the unknown, Dar Noaa permitted himself a small smile because he remembered a time when he had been just like that. The amusement didn’t last long, though, because the crowd that had surrounded and kept him captive here since his arrival was opening an aisle for a second time.  

This time, it was General Leia Organa that appeared at the far end.

She approached with the manner of a commander, displaying the confident steps and quiet authority that were her trademark, but Dar Noaa could sense that underneath all that cool composure, she was actually glad to see him. Their last encounter had ended in disagreement, and he had misgivings about whether she would even permit him to approach, much less land here, so it was a great relief when the Jedi Master’s password was accepted.  When she finally stood in front of him, she almost managed a smile.

“Dar Noaa,” she said, “I’m relieved to see you... alive and well. No point in asking how you found us, is there.” Statement, not a question; she knew he wouldn’t tell her. She looked past him, toward the ship.  “And I see the Republic’s property is still intact.”

“Oh, that,” Dar Noaa replied. “We should talk about that… but that’s not why I’ve come; General. I’ve seen Luke Skywalker, and he told me to come to you.”

“And did my brother,” she pointed at his swollen eye, “give you that, too?”

“No,” Dar Noaa answered. “Quite the opposite, I assure you. He saved my life.”

 

Leia was surprised by what Dar Noaa had just said. Luke was famously contemptuous of the Sith, so it was hard to imagine him saving one’s life. Whatever Dar Noaa had come to tell her, it had to very important indeed.

“Come with me,” she said.

 

As Dar Noaa followed the general through the crowd, he sensed something; something unexpected, back there, beyond the crowd, out of sight. The feeling begged for investigation, but this was not the time.

First things first.

 

……..

 

 

The Knight was bored and tired of the mission.

Archipelago planets were always tiresome, and this one was no exception; it had no less than forty-five thousand islands that were large enough to support civilized populations, and in this part of the galaxy, the term “civilized” was used to indicate anything from societies that had technology to those that were still using stone tools. The mission would normally require searching every single island, too; but here on this Ahch'to, the beings were heavily invested in seafaring ventures; trade was brisk between the islands – and the traders were not only open, they were actually eager to deal.  When they learned that a party called “the Knights” was willing to pay for information, they came by the thousands, which meant endless hours spent repeating the same questions, then determining whether the responses were valid.  These traders excelled at story-telling, too, so in the end, the only way to stop the stream of liars was to publically execute a few of the more outrageous ones. That culled the herd substantially since few of the traders had anything to tell that they were willing to die for.

The interviews proceeded, each one the same script as before, each with the same empty results, so when the report came that a trader had reported dealing with a girl who matched the description of the one being sought, the Knight had at first welcomed the news. 

The successful Knight had brought a container of artifacts, too, items the trader reported receiving from the girl in trade for sweets. Nothing of great value there, a bowl, a few metal spoons, an empty glass vial, and an old metal cup; ordinary things, humble things, that a Knight could respect for their purity of purpose;  but these were items to be prized because the Kylo would use his power to verify that this was the girl they were seeking. Then this mission could conclude.

The Knight accompanied his successful comrade for the presentation. It was important that there be a witness, so that any honors forthcoming from the find could be recited later to the assembly, since it was unbecoming a Knight of Ren to speak of his own honors.  

When they arrived at the Transport, the Kylo was already standing at the entry awaiting them.  This was unusual, since they were in the habit of reporting to his quarters inside. They approached and his comrade opened the container, then held it up for the Kylo’s inspection. The Kylo looked down at the contents, as he always did, but instead of simply examining them, this time he reached in and picked out the little metal cup.  He held it up high and examined it in silence for a very long time.

Too much time.

There was no way to look inside the mask, no way to see what the Kylo must be thinking. He seemed to be fascinated, perhaps even captivated, by the cup.  Even his breathing changed, going from barely noticeable to deep, then it stopped outright, and then came a barely audible sigh. But the Kylo did not announce a verification as he should have, nor did he acknowledge the successful Knight.

“Call the Knights,” was all he said. “We leave at once.”

Then he turned and disappeared into the transport, with that cup still in his hand.

The knight was now alarmed.  He’d been well trained in observation, and what he’d just observed here was his Kylo showing... *sentiment*! How was this possible? Was he reacting to the cup because it belonged to the girl and… what was it that agent said?

_Time was the Knights of Ren would not tolerate their Kylo taking a female for himself._

Horrified that the agent’s words might have been the truth, the Knight focused on the memory, recalling it in detail. The agent had warned him, and then she had added the suggestion that it might not be too late to take action.

_Just make her go away… and spare yourselves the disgrace._

It didn’t matter that there was surely some ulterior motive behind the agent’s actions; this was a matter of honor, a matter of the Code.  He had a choice: if he acted, it meant death, if he didn’t act, it meant disgrace.  

The choice was made.

 

……………………………

 

 

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

8 …………………

 

Poe Dameron had dreamed many wild fantasies in his life, but none ever came true.

Until now.

He had just entered the visitor ship’s cockpit, and he couldn’t believe what he saw. Instead of the expected instrument panel, beyond the seats was a wall of smooth black ceramic material that flowed from the ceiling to the floor uninterrupted except for a section that curved outward toward the seats like a wave in deep water. The ‘waveform’ was positioned at a height that made it practical as a surface to find controls, but no controls were there.

“Sit” Dar Na pointed to one of the chairs, “there.”

Poe obeyed, and as soon as he had seated himself, Dar Na took hold of his right arm and pulled it over the wave, then lowered it until Poe’s hand was resting on the ceramic surface. For a second or two, nothing happened; then the smooth material beneath his hand began to feel cool, then cooler, then uncomfortably cold. Poe started to lift his hand, but Dar Na took hold of his forearm and held it down, pressing his hand against the cold.

“Wait,” Dar Na said.

Puzzled and a bit alarmed, Poe looked at the Sith, then back at his hand – something was happening there. A soft blue glow was coming from the ceramic under his palm, spreading outward until it outlined his hand like an aura. It grew brighter and bigger, sending out delicate tendrils of glowing blue in all directions through the material. Poe felt a tingle in his hand; it grew in intensity as the aura expanded. Poe was fascinated; this was as beautiful as it was disturbing.

“Say your name,” Dar Na told him.

“Poe Dameron.”

Instantly, the entire waveform lit up, bathing Poe in blue light. What had been an entirely black surface seconds before was now an elaborate pattern of symbols connected by pulsing lines of blue light. Poe recognized the pattern instantly for what it was - an instrument panel. He immediately started to examine it for anything that looked familiar or was in a logical place, but found nothing. A flash of blue appeared in the center of the pattern, and suddenly a hologrphic projection appeared, suspended in the air above. It showed an X-wing flying away, no, flying just ahead, quickly being overtaken. Then it showed illuminated views of the S-foils, the fuselage, the face of a startled pilot, the X-wing’s nose; followed by the image of an armed freighter being overtaken and dissolving in a ball of yellow light.

“You were in the way,” Dar Na said. “It sent these images back to us.”

“What was it?”

“An energy orb; one of the few things we have that can serve as a weapon when necessary.”

“Why did you want to look at me?”

“We didn’t.”

“Huh?”

“Once released, the orb is free to make its own decisions regarding mission objectives and how to achieve them. It calculated that it could examine you and your ship without penalty.”

“If ‘penalty’ means anything like death, then I guess I’m grateful.”

Dar Na growled with amusement, then dropped himself into the seat beside Poe’s.

“Leave your hand as it is,” he told Poe. “You are not finished.”

“Okay.”

Beams of blue light illuminated Poe from above. There were three separate sources, enough to illuminate his entire body. Poe recognized this, too; he was being scanned for identification purposes.

“You,” Dar Na told him, “have been accepted.”

“Accepted?” Poe asked. “Accepted as what?”

“Pilot.”

“What? Wait,” Poe lifted his hand off the wave surface and it instantly went black. “I’m not signing up for anything here. I just wanted to meet her.”

Do not worry, little pilot!” Dar Na leaned far over the seat, getting close to Poe. “All it means is the vessel has agreed to allow you to train with… her. Simulations, if you want to run some.”

Poe’s eyes widened; this Sith was saying he was allowed to play with this ship if he wanted to; which he did, very much.

“I want to.”

“Good, now put your hand back where it belongs and tell… her.”

“What should I say?”

“Anything you want.”

“Okay, then,” Poe said. “Hello, sweetheart…”

“Hello, Poe Dameron,” the vessel replied. The words were perfect, without the metallic tone he’d expected; but the voice was distinctly *male*. “Shall we begin?”

The Sith laughed out loud.

“Did I mention that it’s intuitive?” he asked. "It knows what you really want.”

 

 

………………….

 

 

Aboard the Millennium Falcon, which was speeding through hyperspace, on its way back to Luke’s island, a great deal was happening, none of it pleasant. Rey was riding copilot with Chewbacca, and both of them were trying not to listen to the argument in the back. Master Luke and Maz had been going at it for hours, and despite her heroic efforts, Rey overheard her name being mentioned repeatedly. She’d also heard accusations and condemnations and the name Ben Solo repeatedly. She knew who he was now; he was Kylo Ren, the monster that took her prisoner and killed Han Solo. There were so many things she wanted to understand, so many questions to ask, but nobody was available – or willing – to answer them for her. Killing someone as precious as your own father was beyond her comprehension, but there had to be an explanation for it. There had to be a story. And hopefully, somewhere in that story, Rey would get a clue about how and why she was now a part of it.

A soft purr from Chewbacca alerted her to the fact that the back had gone silent. Perhaps the fight was finally over. Before she could finish that thought, Rey saw Master Luke appear at the cockpit entry.

“I need to have a word with Chewbacca,” Luke told her. “Alone.”

Considering how the trip had gone thus far, Rey was glad to be dismissed; so she relinquished the seat to Master Luke and made her way back to the ship’s communal space, where Maz was. She was sitting at the dejarik table, looking thoroughly tired, almost, but not quite, so tired that she wasn’t still angry.

“Skywalkers!” she informed Rey, “Stupid and stubborn, every one of them!”

“I’m so sorry, Maz,” Rey went to the table, sat down and slid over beside her, then pointed at three small crates and a box, that box, which were sitting in the center of the space, “that we couldn’t bring more with us.”

“Eh,” Maz grumbled, “those are only things, objects, easily acquired and easily lost.”

“You’ve known the Skywalkers for a long time, haven’t you?”

“Longer than they know,” Maz replied, looking at Rey with expectation in her eyes, “I would think after all that has happened, you’d have some questions about them.”

“Yes.”

Maz studied her for a minute, and then looked past her, toward the access tunnel that led to the cockpit and Luke.

 _He’s making plans with Chewbacca,_ Maz thought, _not listening; this is as good a time as any._

“Then ask your questions,” she told Rey. “If I know the answer, I will tell you.”

“Is Kylo Ren really Ben Solo?”

“Yes. He’s Leia Organa’s son and Luke Skywalker’s nephew,” Maz said. “And he is as Skywalker as they come.”

“You don’t like Skywalkers?”

“Me?” Maz seemed surprised by the question. “I love them; each and every one of them; even the ones that disappoint me.”

“Even Ben Solo?”

“Especially Ben Solo,” Maz sighed. “He was a very special child. Does it surprise you to hear that?”

Rey considered the question for a minute before responding.

“I suppose not,” she said, “but I have no experience to draw on.”

“Then let me tell you the story, Rey,” Maz said. And then she began.

 

………………………

 

Up front in the Falcon’s cockpit, Chewbacca was expressing his displeasure over what Luke had just said.

Growling loudly, he told Luke that he agreed with Maz: “It’s a bad idea.”

“Nonetheless, we’re doing it this way,” Luke’s mind was made up. “You drop me and the girl off at the island, make a run to the Isle of Trade, drop Maz off there so she can get offworld transport, then right back here to pick us up and we’re gone.”

“Maz wants to stay with us.”

“I know, but it’s too dangerous, Luke explained. “She’ll be fine; she’ll find her way. She always has.”

“Why can’t we just skip the island, in fact, skip the whole planet and just… go?”

“There are some very important things there that I have to get. We only need a few hours to get it all done.”

Chewbacca snorted. In the past, he’d always been able to trust whatever either Luke or Maz said, but what does one do when two totally trustworthy advisers totally disagree? Han would have solved the problem easily enough; this was Luke’s mess, so it was Luke’s decision as to how to proceed. Now that Chewbacca thought about it, the one person he always knew he could trust above all others was Han Solo.

Chewbacca snorted his doubts, but then nodded in agreement. The island it was.

 

………………….

 

 

Back in the communal space, Maz was speaking to a rapt audience. The girl hadn’t interrupted her once. Maz told the story simply, stating facts, not opinion, trying to keep her heart out of it. With every new chapter of the saga, that was growing more difficult to do; and now she had finally come to the part of the story that she knew the girl wanted to know about the most.

Ben Solo.

Maz told Rey about how Han Solo and Leia Organa fought and loved, then loved and fought. She told Rey about how the baby took them by surprise. Ben was completely unplanned, but they were happy about it, at least at first…

“His family was always strong with force,” she told Rey, “so it was no surprise that he was force-sensitive, too. What was surprising was how gifted he was; before he even learned how to walk, he was playing with Force, making things move by themselves or suspending them in midair. No one had ever seen such precociousness before. A few of us sensed something was not right, but we pretended not to notice. We didn’t know then that there were a few very rare cases known of a Force-sensitive child who was so extraordinarily gifted that it resulted in serious, debilitating illnesses developing as they grew. We saw the signs in Ben Solo, but he was the son of a princess senator, nephew to a living legend, so we looked aside; we told ourselves he was a privileged brat who would eventually outgrow the tantrums and mischief.

We were wrong.

His father was always traveling, his mother was always fighting someplace for some reason; always he was left behind, alone, constantly surround by strangers; and among them, there were those who wished to exploit him for his family and others who feared him for what he was.” Maz‘s words grew softer as she remembered those days. “He became shy and withdrawn, spending great amounts of time by himself; sometimes he would hide so well, no one could find him; but when he thought nobody was listening, he would sit and sing, and give himself away. That’s who Ben Solo was. He was such a sensitive child that his mother decided when he was very young that he would never know about his connection to Darth Vader.” Saying that name hardened her again. “It was when he started to become a man that the flaw in his gift manifested itself: first came the headaches, followed by unexplainable, uncontrollable rages, and then spells of dark depression that nothing helped. He was frightened, and then he became *frightening* to those around him. When they saw their son spiraling down into darkness, the parents sought help anywhere they could; counselors and therapists, medicines, even mysterious healing potions. When that failed, in desperation, his mother sent him to his uncle’s academy, hoping that Luke might teach him control; or at the very least, contain him there. But Luke, like his sister, was occupied with more important things that took him away from the academy for long periods, so Ben was alone there too, but felt he had nowhere else to go.”

 _So lonely, so afraid to leave_ , Rey thought. _Like me._

“The story goes that Ben Solo learned he was Darth Vader’s grandson from a HoloNet news report, but that’s not true; I heard what really happened from someone who was there. When the galaxy learned the truth about his mother’s bloodline, Ben was the last to hear it. His father was away on business, his mother was at council and his uncle was off on a mission. He was alone and unprepared when they confronted him. They drove him out of the academy, and then assaulted him in the street as he tried to leave. For at least two full days and nights, they pursued him before giving up.”

 _That’s why_ , Rey thought, _the name Darth Vader cut into him like it did._

“Sometime during those desperate hours, something inside him was broken; he was lost to fear and rage; and when he…” Maz paused to reconsider what she should say next and chose to take another path. “Terrible things happened. Then he vanished as if he’d never existed. The next time that anyone saw or heard of him, he was… as you saw him.”

 _Only now_ , Rey thought, _I’m no longer sure what I saw._

“Why did he kill his father?”

“I have no answer for that,” Maz was weary of the story now. “I doubt that even he knows why. I’m telling you all this for a reason…”

“I’m like *him*,” Rey finished the sentence for her. “We’re the *same*.”

It was an admission, not a revelation; she’d known it from the first time she’d looked into his eyes and seen herself reflected there. “That’s why Master Luke didn’t want to train me.”

“No, not the same,” Maz shook her head. “You have a similar gift, true, but how you use that gift is up to you. Now you know who you are; you know what you are and you know where the danger lies,” Maz wanted to end this on a hopeful note, “but there’s also what you can *become*. Luke will train you and teach you how to stay in the Light; but in the end, you choose the path you will take.”

 _“Don’t be afraid,”_ he’d told her, _"I feel it, too.”_

“But what about *him*?”

‘Yes,” Maz replied wearily. “What about him?”

 

 

…………

 

 

“Touch and go, Chewie!”

It was late afternoon when the Millennium Falcon reached Ahch’to and arrived at the island. The ship was still in the air, but Luke already had the Falcon’s entry open and its ramp moving. Even before the ramp scraped the stone of the landing site, he was walking down it, with Rey cautiously following. From the open door behind and above them, R2D2 beeped and warbled loudly.

“No,” Luke replied without looking back at the droid. “Chewy needs you to help run the ship.”

“Luke!” Maz called from her spot behind the R2D2, and for her, he paused and looked back. “Remember who you are!”

“Goodbye, Maz, “Luke replied, “And good luck.”

Then he was moving again, walking swiftly toward the stone steps; so fast that Rey was having difficulty keeping up. The Falcon lifted off, retracting the ramp as it rose. Maz watched the two shrinking figures below until the door slipped between her and the view. Then, as she walked forward to join Chewbacca in the cockpit, she noticed that the ship was climbing through gathering clouds, and let out a deep sigh.

R2D2 was right behind her, and reacted to the sound, then reported some news using melodious tones followed by a single somber beep.

“Yes,” Maz answered, “I know, R2 - there’s a storm coming.”

 

 

…………

 

 

After Luke sent Rey to check every domed hut that she had any spent time in for items that should be removed, he went straight to the highest domed building. It was where he would sleep when he could sleep, and also where he kept a journal of his search, along with a collection of notes and artifacts he’d acquired along the way.

When he arrived at the doorless entry, he was shocked by what he saw inside.

Instead of being in the hiding place where Luke kept them, his journal, the notes, everything, was in plain sight. The artifacts were strewn about the stone floor, along with a few torn notes. On the small table that he kept below the hut’s single paneless window because the light was good there, Luke saw his journal lying open. He started over to check it, but stopped when he noticed something sitting on the page, as if to mark it. When he realized what it was, his heart skipped a beat.

_He’s been here. And he wants me to know it._

He was still standing there, staring at it, thinking, when Rey appeared behind him.

“Checked all and done,” she said proudly, “and… hey, how did that get back here?” She stepped past Luke, went to the table and picked up the cup. The instant it touched the flesh of her fingers, a terrible sense of dread flooded through her, and she turned to Luke with wide, frightened eyes.

“Master Luke!”

That was all she could get out; the cup was paralyzing her, binding her – just like... she shut the memory out. And words weren’t important, because she could see on the Jedi’s face that he already knew. Luke stepped up to her, took her hand and gently pried the cup free, then set it back onto the open journal exactly where it had been before, releasing her from its grip. Still in the grasp of panic, Rey stood very still; against her will, her mind was searching, seeking him…

“He isn’t here.” Calm, reassuring and entirely truthful, Luke’s words broke the spell. “What you’re feeling is just a lingering trace.”

“What do we do?” Rey asked. “What *can* we do?”

Raising a hand to quiet her, Luke went to his journal and looked at the page beneath the cup. It was his observations on a remnant of the “The Rule of Two”, an artifact of the Sith. The cup was placed precisely at the beginning of a paragraph he’d copied from that text:

 

_Do not be confused into thinking they are two blades. The blades are connected._

_If you know the position of one, you know the position of the other._

 

It was certainly a message; but one with so many possible interpretations that it was meaningless. Beyond that, Luke didn’t understand why it had even been left. The First Order had been after him for years, he knew all about that; the Knights of Ren and their Kylo had wasted years hunting him. All they had to do was sit here and wait, and the last of the Jedi would have finally fallen. Instead, his nephew ransacked his records, paged through his journal, and then left. The cup was just there to add pain. It was once a present to a very young Ben Solo from his uncle; the child wouldn’t travel without it. Memories cut through him like daggers, but he pushed them aside, out of his way.

“Rey,” Luke said, “Help me gather all this up and carry it to the fire pit.

“Burn it?” she protested. “No, you can’t. It’s your work, it’s too important…”

“That’s what I thought once, too,” Luke moved the cup and closed the journal. He felt the girl’s eyes on him; he could never make her understand that the only thing he’d learned from his quest was that he never should have started it. “We burn it.”

Rey nodded her head, accepting the command, and then began to pick the items up from the floor.

 

 

……….

 

 

Despite the bad weather, the Millennium Falcon was making good time to the Isle of Trade. The storm was gaining strength, though, so Chewbacca was spending a lot of time and effort keeping the ship steady and on course. The Falcon was not young; she protested every blast of wind and relentless hammering of rain against her hull until Chewbacca decided her would take her high and out of harm’s way, graze the upper ionization layer, then drop back down for the final approach, perhaps slide under the worst of it. Maz was sitting in the seat beside him; she seemed lost in her own thoughts, so he chose not to tell her he was making such a slight course correction. He turned the Falcon’s face up gently, so the ship’s motion would be subtle and not disturb her. There was something about the climb to the edge of space that Chewbacca always loved; he never tired of it. He looked out at raging darkness, then brilliant light as they left the clouds below, then seamless gradient from bright to dark again as they climbed out of the atmosphere, then space and stars. And there, moving among those stars, he saw the shape of a massive star destroyer and let out a howl of alarm.

Roused from her meditation, Maz gave the Wookie a questioning look. Chewbacca pointed , and her eyes followed, quickly spotting the reason for his alarm.

“Luke! The girl!” Chewbacca was speaking so fast that Maz had trouble understanding. “We have to go back!”

“No!” Maz pointed away from the destroyer, toward the direction they’d just come from. Something small and fast was speeding that way. “Look- if that’s a troop transport; it may be one of many. All we can do right now is drop and hide. Luke and Rey will have to fend for themselves; there’s nothing we can do for them.”

With an angry growl, Chewbacca acknowledged that she was right, and then he turned the Falcon’s nose down, back into the storm.

 

 

………

 

 

Back at the island, the storm was approaching quickly. Angry dark clouds now covered the sky in all directions. A brisk wind was whipping up from the beach, bringing with it damp air and the smell of the sea; it seemed to be feeding the flames and trying to drown them at the same time.

As she watched the last of Luke’s precious documents crinkle and shrink into black, Rey wanted to cry out, loud enough that the stars would hear her. The Jedi Master was standing there, watching the fire erase years of his life without any sign of emotion, and Rey could hardly bear to see it. There was nothing that she could say that would be any real comfort to him; still she tried to think of something, anything, to offer. She looked away from the fire, out towards the sea, into the worst of it…

Far away, almost lost to the darkness, something was moving beneath the clouds, coming their way.

“Master Luke!”

“I see it.”

“Is it…?”

“What do you sense, Rey?”

Master Luke’s question was a command, not a request; despite her reluctance, Rey felt herself reaching out, seeking.

“Outside; darkness. Cold.” She reported each feeling as it hit her. “Inside; rage. So much pain…”

Realizing that the girl’s mind was being pulled away from him, Luke touched her arm to pull her back.

“Listen to me, Rey,” Luke said, “I need you to go hide.”

“What?”

“You’ve been walking this island with me for days; I had reasons for that. I made you explore every part of it; you know the places where you can disappear and not be found.”

“No!” she protested. “I belong *here* - with you! I’m not afraid!”

“I *am* afraid,” Luke lectured. “What’s about to happen here is about me, not you; and I will deal with it.” He held her by her shoulders, demanding her attention. “But I can only deal with it if I don’t have to worry about you. You will disappear and stay disappeared until you hear me calling for you, do you understand?”

“No!”

“Rey,” There was no time for discussion, so Luke raised his hand and ‘urged’ her to obey. “You will hide now and not come out of hiding until I call for you.”

“I will hide now,” Rey replied, “and not come out of hiding until you call for me.” Then she slipped her staff’s strap over her shoulder and ran away, heading down the beach, toward the point and beyond.

 

Luke remained there long enough to assure himself that she was, in fact, complying with his instructions, then he headed to the stone steps and started up.

 _Maz was right,_ he thought, _I was stupid to come back for the journal. Now it’s nothing but wet ashes anyway._

Luke climbed the steps with purpose; during his years on this island, he’d spent many hours considering where the best spot to make a stand, should it come to that, should be. The steps lead first to the stone hut village, and the open center of that circle of stone formed a natural arena. The steep drop off of the narrow stone step path limited the number who could enter from below, and the steps were the only way to get there. No matter how many knights came, they would only enter the space one at a time. If he was lucky, he could put many of them down before they overwhelmed him. If he was very lucky, their master might choose to face him alone. Back in the day, that thought would have been encouraging, even laughable; despite what he said, Ben Solo never enjoyed lightsaber training and as a result, had nowhere near the skill someone with his native ability should have. That was then, though, and Luke could be sure that Snoke would have found a way to get past that resistance, just as he’d found ways to break down the rest of the boy’s resistance right under Luke Skywalker’s nose.

_Maz was right about that, too; I missed all the signs because I wasn’t there to see them._

Luke arrived at the top of the stone steps, crossed the open space and took refuge from the rain inside the highest situated of the stone huts. From this location, he could keep watch over the stone landing step, although the storm was making that disturbingly difficult. The downpour blurred the view and the lightening kept blinding him for precious milliseconds. Time itself seemed to be staggering forward, keeping rhythm with the storm. Except for the fact that he was facing certain death, Luke might have considered this a moment of great beauty, a privilege to witness.

Tactics would be simple enough; the knights were fearless fighters, but they were not Force-sensitives and no match for him. Kylo Ren was another matter. Luke had no way to predict Ren’s abilities with any confidence, but the girl’s memories provided valuable insight to what his weaknesses might be. If Luke could use those weaknesses against him, he might be able to throw Ren off balance emotionally; confuse or even paralyze him with Ben’s feelings. If there was a solid meaning to the message Ren had left, perhaps it was that. Luke would only need one second of a clear line to the target, be it Ren’s head or his heart, and Luke would end it. He’d given Dar Noaa his word to protect every Force-sensitive, but this would have to be an exception to the rule.

 _It’s for the best_ , Luke told himself, f _or all of us, even for Ben. Everything he once was is gone; and what’s left isn’t even…_

Luke remembered Dagobah. He remembered how he’d felt when Ben Kenobi tried to justify the lie he’d told to Luke about who Darth Vader was. Luke believed then that Obi Wan was an angry old man trying to rationalize past failures by shifting all the blame onto Anakin Skywalker. He believed then that his father was worth saving. He believed then, and in the end, he was right.

 _No,_ Luke decided. _I am not Obi Wan. Ben Solo will not die tonight._

Now all he had to do was figure out how to make it true.

 

 

.............

 

 

The time had come.

 

In the dark and rain, the little common area amid the stone huts had become a hellish arena; blinding wet blackness constantly being strobed by lightening above, below, and all around. Luke chose his spot carefully and waited for the Kylo of Ren to arrive. He sensed his nephew’s approach, then heard the sound and saw the erratic red blaze of Ren’s lightsaber igniting, but he did not answer that silent challenge. Instead he stood where he was and waited.

Using the Force instead of his eyes, Luke followed every step, every move, his adversary used to approach, and the familiar pattern gave him hope. This Kylo of Ren was indeed powerful with the Dark Side of the Force, but beneath that terrifying surface, Luke could also sense a flicker, a trace, of the Light there, too.

_Perhaps there’s just enough left of Ben Solo to bring Kylo Ren down._

“Hello, Ben,” Luke shouted. ”I’ve been waiting for you.”

The black knight stopped his approach and stood there swinging his lightsaber casually at his side, creating great glowing red banners of steam from the rain drops hitting it as it swung back and forth.

“There’s a first!” he shouted back. “You; waiting for me. You weren’t here when I came before, but it was not a waste of my time.”

“There was nothing in my journal that could be of any use to you now.”

“I’d beg to differ, but literary debates are not why I came back,” Ren’s mechanical voice was icy. “I’m glad you waited for me. It’s…” Then he paused, distracted by something inside; the red lightsaber now dangled idly at his side. After spending years with the boy, Luke recognized the conflict in the man standing before him now. The Dark Side had him, but not all of him. Sensing his uncle’s intrusion, Ren pushed him out with a surge of anger.

“You know why I’m here.” He raised and pointed his lightsaber at Luke. "Luke Skywalker, last of the Jedi, I’ve come to grant you an honorable death – for old time’s sake.”

“Like you gave Tekka?” Luke held his position.

“He made his choice.”

“Like you gave my Padawans?”

Silence.

“Like you gave your *father*?”

Silence.

“And honorable? Honor is a word you don’t comprehend, Ben,” Luke shouted, his words cutting like razors. “I won’t lower myself to fight an insect like *you*.”

“Fight me. Or not,” Ren replied. This time, there was an audible tremor in the mechanical voice, “Either way, you die tonight.”

_That’s it, Ben._

Ren took a long stride toward him and swung his lightsaber out wide; glowing streams of downpour turning to steam as they hit the blade made it look like a wall of fire. Luke took a single step into position and ignited his own lightsaber. Seeing the steaming green glow made Ren pause.

“What?” Luke called out, his voice contemptuous. “Were you expecting to see the blue of *Anakin Skywalker*? You aren’t worthy of that!”

Silence.

_Come on, Ben; don’t disappoint me._

Ren’s lightsaber dropped to a lower position, but only for a second, then he charged at Luke, full speed and swinging. Luke met the charge with a block, deftly redirecting Ren’s attack to the side, forcing him to turn and swing again with the same result.

“You never were very good at this, Ben!” Luke shouted.

Silence.

Ren came at Luke again, this time straight on, and Luke met the strike from below, forcing Ren’s weapon up, and turning him away again. Ren spun around and brought his lightsaber down fast, but Luke had already stepped back, clear of it. Ren lunged forward, but Luke leaned back, avoiding it, then he sliced across Ren’s left arm, cutting through the thick woven sleeve, but only singeing the skin beneath slightly in the process; enough to make Ren jerk his arm away and take a step back. Luke had the advantage, but he didn’t follow through with another blow to the arm. Instead he withdrew, four steps back, stopped and lowered his lightsaber, letting its tip boil the soaked mud, sending a surge of glowing green steam upward, enveloping him; giving him a ghostly appearance. Lowering his lightsaber, Ren approached Luke until he was just within striking distance, then he stopped.

“You are… holding back!” The mechanical voice roared. “Why are you holding back?!”

The raw, real emotion leaking through that artificial voice hit Luke hard. Ren sounded … desperate; he wasn’t asking – he was *begging* Luke to fight. Was it possible that Ben Solo had brought Kylo Ren here not to fulfill a destiny, but to be *punished* for it? Suddenly all of Luke’s doubts and grievances vanished and he felt only compassion for his nephew.

_There’s a chance!_

Luke switched off his lightsaber.

“Because you’re just not worth the effort, Ben!” Luke shouted. “You were always so *weak*! Always an embarrassment to your family; to your grandfather; to me - and to your… “

A howl of absolute rage came from the mask, and the Kylo of Ren stepped forward, lifting his lightsaber to deliver a death stroke.

_Now!_

Luke raised his idle lightsaber and released it in a force-throw. It struck Ren’s left side like a sledge hammer, breaking ribs and emptying the lung behind them of air. An unrecognizable sound came from the black mask; the red lightsaber fell from the hand that held it and extinguished itself in the mud below. The black knight stood, shaking wildly, struggling for breath. Luke reached out with the Force, trying to estimate the damage, when he sensed it coming. He was astonished – he hadn’t foreseen this.

Force lightning!

Pure and primal, raging red, it shot from Ren’s upraised hands and struck Luke face on. He tried to deflect it with his own hands, but to no avail; the lightening lifted him, and then slammed him against a boulder. As he was sliding down the boulder, a second blast of lightening slapped him hard, sending him flying over the huts and beyond the cliff edge into the blackness beyond.

 

For several minutes, the black knight stood motionless in the darkness; short, pained breaths coming from behind his mask. Unable to bend, he labored to retrieve his lightsaber from the mud, and only after several trembling efforts, was he able to persuade it to return to his hand.

The he turned and staggered back towards the stone steps.

 

 

…………

 

 

 

Down below, the downpour had given birth to wild streams and waterfalls among the rocks. Working her way through the blackness by touch alone and soaked with every step, Rey was having great difficulty keeping her footing; and her staff, slung over her shoulder to free her hands, was becoming a serious problem. It kept catching on the rocks and yanking her off balance. Then there was the problem of the water below. Rey couldn’t see where the rocks ended and the sea began, but she was sure it wasn’t where it should be. It sounded as if it were coming closer, getting higher with every wave. She hadn’t had very much experience with this seaside, but she knew that something was going terribly wrong. She was clinging tightly, riding out the latest surge of sea water when she felt it.

_Pain. No air. Pain._

Panic seized her; she knew she’d promised Master Luke that she would stay hidden no matter what, but he needed her!

_Pain. No air. Pain…_

The sensation was so powerful that Rey forgot where she was and relaxed her grip on the rocks. The next surge of sea water picked her up, pushed her forward against the rocks and then pulled her back as it receded, dragging her down from the rocks onto the beach below and then out into the sea. Rey struggled to keep her head up, but the raging water tossed and turned her about, then pushed her under. She fought her way to the surface, only to be caught up by the next incoming wave and dragged back onto the beach. Then another wave rushed in, pushing her forward and then pulling her back again. Her staff snagged on something in the blackness, pulling her under, twisting her shoulder back painfully; then the strap broke, releasing her to the whims of the water again. She flayed her arms about desperately, but the next wave came and washed her onto the beach. She collided with one of the bigger beach stones and grabbed it just as the next wave arrived, escaping the inward push, but when the water receded, it pulled her hands free and dragged her back toward the blackness. The next wave picked her up and pushed her toward the beach again, but Rey had no strength left to fight and let it carry her in.

The wave dropped her onto the beach and started to recede, but this time, it slipped around her and flowed back into the blackness, leaving her behind. Coughing out water, she tried to push herself up, but only managed to roll onto her side.

A huge bolt of lightning filled the sky overhead, revealing that she was no longer alone. A tall black silhouette was standing there with one arm outstretched in her direction. Another wave arrived; it washed in and back out, but the sea’s power over her was gone now and she remained where she was.

Another flash revealed that there were others on the beach as well, bulky black figures behind the tall one. Rey tried to get to her feet, but slipped on the wet sand and fell, this time too exhausted to try again. The figures came closer, but their approach was interrupted by a loud angry voice shouting. The next flash revealed that the figures had stopped and were crowded together. Over the roar of the sea and continuous thunder, Rey thought she heard a deep male voice shout “abomination”, followed by more voices shouting words that blended unto gibberish. Then one of the figures broke away from the group and came toward her, raising something long and menacing over his head as he approached. Realizing the figure’s intent, Rey rolled and struggled to get a footing in the sand, but he was on her too quickly, so she braced herself for the blow.

A streak of red erupted from the figure’s chest, stopping him instantly. Rey’s eyes followed the streak back to its source but she already knew who it was.

Using her hands, she pushed off the beach hard to get to her feet and face him.

“Are… you… ” the mechanical voice was jerky, each word measured, “… injured?”

“No.”

“You… will… come… with… us.”

Suddenly Rey remembered Master Luke, and rage began to surge inside her…

Ren raised his hand and pointed at her.

 **“Don’t.”** He said, delivering a strong warning.

For a second, she resisted; but she was simply too exhausted to do much of anything now and she realized that submission was the only choice. But the expected Force-whatever didn’t happen; instead, he turned and started to walk away. His companions surrounded her, and then a quick poke to her back told her to start walking.

They marched a good distance along the beach, to the point and beyond that, along the far beach. The storm was starting to subside, so less rain was blinding her now, but the sky above was still ferociously active. During one flash of lightening, Rey thought she spotted the outline of a Command Transport in the distance; it was either unusually small or she still had a long walk ahead of her. Ren was ahead of them, walking alone, but there was something decidedly wrong with the monster’s gait. Rey watched; two steps, pause, two steps, pause, two steps, pause. Maybe Master Luke…

 _Where are you?_ She thought fearfully. _Why can’t I feel you? Please, please, don’t be dead!”_

She saw Ren stop. The masked head turned slightly, looking over its shoulder.

 _No_ , she thought. _No no no no no…._

But then something above caught Ren’s attention, and to Rey’s relief, he head looked up, away from her.

In one spot, the blackness overhead was becoming gray; the clouds were glowing, getting brighter by the second, and then Rey saw something solid emerge from them. She recognized the shape; it was a troop transport, certain to be a First Order ship because of who she was following. The troop transport passed over them and landed close to the command transport ship, revealing that the latter was, in fact, unusually small and not far away. Now that she could see it in the glare of landing lights, Rey saw that it was sealed, no ramp was out; and then she noticed that its distinctive bat wing foils were different, too; they seemed devoid of detail; and so dark they seemed to dissolve into the blackness beyond. It was … odd. Rey was straining for a better view when the sound and lights of the trooper transport’s entry ramp opening brought her back to her situation; they were almost there now.

When they reached the small command transport, Ren raised a hand to stop the parade behind him, then he walked back to them.

“Secure… the… objective,” he commanded; then he turned and walked away, toward the troop transport.

Two set of gloved hands grabbed Rey’s arms and pulled sharply, turning her, dragging her toward the command transport, which was now actively opening its entry ramp. Her captors marched her up the open ramp, shoved her inside, and then simply… *left*. The entry slid shut, Rey looked around; then called out, but no one replied and no one came. Realizing that it was possible that they had just tossed her into a transport that was *empty*, Rey could not believe her luck!

Escape was hers for the taking!

She raced through the ship in the direction she expected the cockpit to be, and there it was; but when she entered, she was stunned by what she saw. There were two seats, but instead of the familiar control panels she’d been scavenging for years, she saw nothing – only a wall of black ceramic that flowed from the ceiling to the floor with an odd, wave-like extension where the control panels should be. For the first time in her life, Rey had no idea whatsoever what to do, so she flopped into the right-side seat and quickly considered her options. Perhaps the instrumentation was inside or behind the ceramic. She stretched her hand out, lowered it and then touched. A vicious electric shock grabbed her fingers and she had to pull hard to free herself.

The message was clear: **Don’t touch.**

 

 

………

 

 

General Hux was furious.

Up til now, he’d managed to stay dry by remaining at the top of the entry ramp, under the cover of the troop transport, as he waited to collect his prize and spring the trap. Seeing the girl with them, alive, meant that his first trap had failed, but that was always a possibility; Hux would deal with her later. Then he saw Ren stop and direct two of his Knights to take the girl to the Ren transport, and he realized that Ren was now alerted and suspicious and had no intention of handing the girl over to him as ordered. That required immediate action. Cursing aloud, Hux strode down the ramp into the rain and went to confront Ren, with his Stormtroopers following behind.

“Do we have a problem here, Ren?” he shouted. “The girl comes to *me*!”

“No,” Ren answered. “The… Knights of Ren… will… deliver… the girl… ourselves.”

“You intend to disobey the direct orders of Leader Snoke?” Hux hoped he was masking the delight he felt; Ren was actually handing him a valid excuse to kill them all. “That’s *treason*, Ren.”

“Safe… delivery… of the objective…” The mechanical voice was monotone; it seemed to be reciting from rote, “is… our mission… now.”

“So,” Hux raised a hand ever so slightly as he spoke, “there’s no point in arguing; is there?”

“No.”

Hux smiled and dropped his hand. Blaster fire erupted, not from the Stormtroopers behind him, but from two separate locations back at the trooper transport. Ren leaned left to avoid the blast from the right, but in doing so, he exposed his left side and took a grazing hit right where he’d been hit only days before. He started to fall, but the Knights rushed to his aid. Forming a living shield around him, they pulled him away, toward the Ren transport. Hux signaled the Stormtroopers to pursue. They opened fire on the retreating Knights, illuminating the beach with manmade lightening.

 

Inside the transport, Rey was desperately trying to come up with a plan of action when she heard the sound of blasters firing. Before she could even get out of the seat to investigate, one of the knights appeared at the entrance with Ren. Ignoring her, the knight assisted his Kylo to the empty left-side seat and eased him into it. Rey saw Ren raise his right arm and stretch it forward, but he was shaking badly. The knight took hold of Ren’s arm with one hand and pulled Ren’s glove off with the other, and then guided Ren’s hand over the ceramic waveform and placed it on the surface. Instantly the ceramic wall filled with bright, glowing red patterns.

The knight departed as quickly as he’d come; Rey heard his heavy steps on the ramp, the sound of the entry closing, and the ramp being withdrawn. Rey turned to look, but as she did, she saw Ren pitch forward; only his hand on the waveform had kept him from falling entirely out of the seat, but as he tried to pull himself back, his hand came off it and it flickered wildly. Rey reached out, grabbed Ren’s wrist and held his arm in place; the red patterns stabilized.

“Mmmmmm…” the voice inside the mask choked out, “… mirrorbright.”

The he went slack; his hand turned on its side and slid off the waveform before Rey could react, but the red patterns didn’t extinguish. Rey felt vibrations all around her as the transport came to life. The waveform display sparkled with activity; symbols flashed so quickly that Rey couldn’t make them out, but it was obviously a command sequence in progress. She felt the engines come online and she gripped the seat in anticipation of a liftoff, but instead of moving forward and up, the transport went into horizontal reverse, tossing her forward toward the waveform. Rey saw Ren moving, too, and without thinking, she threw herself between him and the waveform, cushioning him from the impact but taking it for them both herself. Before she could move, the transport spun around to the right, tossing them to the left, but before they hit the wall, it began to accelerate and dumped them onto the left-side seat. The monster was now back where he started with Rey arched over him, holding on, powerless to move against the acceleration. She could hear the sound of water and metal in motion; something on the ship was changing, but Rey had no idea what or where. It pitched and rolled, then dipped a bit forward and back again, and then the acceleration stopped. Rey was finally able to move, so she pushed herself up and off Ren and looked down at him. He was still, motionless, not even…

“Don’t be dead!” she shouted; then she shook him roughly. “You can’t be dead; because if you're dead, I'm dead, too!”

The monster’s body rolled with her shaking, but nothing more. Panicked now, Rey needed to see him, to see his face; so she fumbled with the mask until it released; she lifted the helmet off.

His narrow face was even thinner than the first time she’d seen it; the bones were prominent, as if he’d been starved. The burn, the one she’d given him, was wet and raw without any signs of treatment. The helmet had kept his hair dry, but the wet air had set it into curly ringlets. His eyes were closed. He looked… peaceful. Fearing the worst, Rey touched his face; his skin was clammy. She leaned in close, putting her lips close to his. Warm, but that could be residual heat, so she waited. Then she felt it, a tiny breath.

He was alive.

Relieved, she pulled her face back from his; but just then the ship changed direction and once again they were in motion. This time, though, Rey managed to brace herself against him while holding on tightly to the seat, and they didn’t get tossed. The ship was heading someplace and she had no way to control that; but if this was going to be how things were, then something had to be done about the monster. Rey leaned down, grabbed the hem of the long skirt he was wearing and ripped a good length of it free. Then she tore off a second length, and then another. The fabric was dripping wet, but that shouldn’t matter. She tied two of the lengths together to make a long rope, and holding one end in each hand, she put the rope over and behind the seat and him, then pulled it tight around him and tied it in the front. That would keep the body in place, but those long arms were hanging loose and would flop around, so Rey decided to tie them, too. As she took hold of his right wrist to pull it up, her thumb slipped over something unexpected, and she looked to see what it was.

A scar, centimeters long, well healed.

Rey set the hand on his lap; then pulled up his left hand, removed the soaked glove and examined the wrist.

A matching scar, same size, well healed.

This was something Rey knew well; life on Jakku was very hard and suicide was common there. There was no mistaking what the scars meant; sometime in the past, this monster had tried to take his own life. It was just too bad he hadn’t succeeded. She looped the remaining cloth strip around his wrists, tying them loosely. With the monster secured in the seat, she was now free to move around, explore, find a way to get control…

Suddenly the ship turned upward, catching her off guard; she almost went flying to the rear of the cockpit, but she managed to grab hold of the right side seat and then climb into it. Gravity told her this was a very steep, almost impossible, climb and the ship was accelerating, pressing her brutally into the seat.

And as she was passing out, for a brief second, she imagined stars.

 

 

...............


	9. Chapter 9

-9-

 

_“Rule number one:” she said, “don’t die. It’s not good for you and it wastes precious time.”_

_It was the first thing she ever said to him. He was in a transport, surrounded by strangers who, for some inexplicable reason, had just saved what was left of his life; so he had no idea who she was. Her eyes belied the age in her face; there was a light in them that held his attention; and then there was something else about her…_

_It was his own fault that the Inquisition caught him; he’d risked one last trip home to see his family, and they were waiting for him there. The trial was brief; they asked for a statement and he gave it to them, exactly what they expected to hear and enough to condemn him to death. After that, he was dragged to a windowless room, stripped, turned to face one of the stone walls and chained to it so tightly he couldn’t move. And that’s when the ‘artist’ came in and set to work on the calf of his right leg. The mark had to be perfect, so those who viewed the body later would know what it meant to die for heresy; so the artist took his time, slicing the skin slowly, then peeling it off, then cauterizing. Several hours later, it was finished, and he was left in the room, still chained, immobile, alone for as long as it would take to die. That wall would be the last thing he would ever see, so it came as a complete surprise sometime later when they returned and removed the chains, letting him fall to the floor._

_“It would seem, heretic”, one of them said, “that you have friends in the Republic – they’ve paid your ransom. You get to live.”_

_One of them stepped over him, leaned down and tapped his face with a hot metal rod. Then they dragged him down a tunnel to another room; this one had a window and a second door at the far end, and in its center, there was a large pool of water. They dragged him to the pool, threw him into it and left. He nearly drowned trying to get out, but once his body was out of the water, he leaned over the edge and drank as much as he could hold down, then just lay there awhile. When he thought he might be able to manage it, he sat up and looked around. On the floor next to the far door was a pile of clothing and besides that, a pair of sandals. He got up, limped to the clothes and dressed himself; his leg screamed in protest as he pulled the pant leg up over the artwork. Then he tried the door, and found it unlocked._

_Outside, there were two beings he did not know waiting for him. They helped him hobble to a waiting transport, then inside, and then into a seat. It was some minutes before he recovered enough from the effort to open his eyes, and when he did, the first thing he saw was her face._

_What was she saying now?_

 

“No-ah?”

“Uhhhhhhh….”

“No-ah.”

“Uhhhhhhh… Leia… “

“Open your eyes, No-ah.”

Dar Noaa opened his eyes and saw the face of Leia Organa.  She was kneeling beside him. Above and beyond her, there were other faces, and beyond them, the ceiling. 

He was on the floor.

He opened his mouth to ask, but a nasty jolt of pain from his jaw and lip reminded him why he was there.  He was telling her the story of his meeting with Luke Skywalker when she suddenly jumped up from her chair, looked at him with wide eyes, cried out a single word, “dying!”, and then she fainted.  Dar Noaa managed to catch her before she fell, and then he called for help.  He remembered the door to the room where they were talking flying open, he remembered Resistance personnel rushing in, and he remembered something coming at his face.

“Noah,” she looked worried, “are you all right?”

“Yes… Leia...” he noticed the faces beyond hers were paying close attention, “… General, I think so.”

“I am *so* sorry,” she put a small piece of gauze to his mouth and patted it gently. “They misunderstood.”

“That’s… understandable.” It truly was; when they heard her scream, followed by his call, they naturally raced to the rescue, opened the door and found their general unconscious in the grasp of a Sith. And then they did exactly what Dar Noaa would have expected them to do if he’d given it any thought in advance. “What about you, are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she lied. “It was just a bad moment. Can you get up?”

“Probably,” he sat up; no real damage done. Then he looked around at all the other faces. “General, can you make them … go away… for a few minutes?”

“Sure,” she replied. “Everybody - out!”

The faces showed reluctance, but the bodies were well trained, and quickly the room was empty except for Dar Noaa and the general.  He waited until the last had closed the door behind them before speaking.

“Do you remember,” he took the gauze from her hand, “what you said?”

“Yes.”

“What did you see?”

‘Nothing, really,” she replied, “just a feeling, a terrible feeling.”

“Leia, who was dying?” It was an unkind question, he knew that. There were only two beings that meant enough to Leia Organa to cause such a reaction; both were powerful with the Force, losing either of them now would be bad for the galaxy. But for Leia, those two were all she had left in the entire universe, so the loss would be unbearable. Still, he had to ask. “Who was it?”

“I don’t know,” she was fighting tears as she spoke. “My brother, my son…” she couldn’t hold them back.  “I don’t know, Noah, I just don’t…”

Dar Noaa reached over, pulled her close, and held her while she cried it out.

 

……….

 

 

_“Rule number one:” the Sith’s words echoed in his head, “don’t die.”_

_If I stay here; eventually the tide will come in and wash me away._

For some reason, Luke Skywalker found that thought darkly hilarious; it would be so ironic if he’d survived last night by falling into the angry sea only to be drowned by the quiet sea today.  He still couldn’t move, but the numbness in his arms and legs was gradually becoming a burning sensation, meaning the feeling was returning to them. Until then, all he could do was lie here on the beach, looking up at the morning sky.  

Last night had been a revelation of horror and hope. The horror was that his nephew was actually able to use Force-lightning; that was something utterly unexpected because there was simply no way Ben should have been able to do it. It was something that took years to learn about, and then years more to control, and the skill came at a terrible cost – it literally consumed the one creating it. Luke wasn’t positive, but he thought there had been two bolts released; and if so, what had that done to Ben?

A sting in his right arm told Luke that he’d regained some control there, and he raised it to get a look at his artificial hand. As he expected, it was no longer a hand, just a mass of melted and re-solidified metal, totally useless now. In one final act of service to its owner, it shielded Luke’s head from the first bolt, absorbing the energy until it melted; saving his life in the process.  There was something darkly hilarious in that, too; Luke lost his living hand to his father and then was saved from his nephew by the artificial hand that replaced it.  His melted hand was a now a relic, a symbol of his many defeats.  But it was also a revelation of hope; the Force-lightning that destroyed it was not intentional; it was a purely instinctual reaction to the injury Luke had just inflicted on Ben; Luke was sure of that. Ben probably didn’t even know he had such power in him; Luke hadn’t sensed it on Ben’s approach.  And if Ben knew he had such power, why hadn’t he used it, why risk a lightsaber duel when you have the power to end things with a single directed gesture?

_There’s still light in him. There’s a chance…_

Terrible cramping in his legs told Luke they were coming back to life.  He couldn’t help it; he had to scream as he made his legs move, bend his knees, then straighten, flex his toes and rotate his ankles; but nobody would hear that.

_Nobody’s here._

Ben was gone. The girl was gone. Not dead, Luke felt, just no longer on the island.  By now, the girl was in the hands of the First Order, and the thought made him sick inside. He wasn’t going to think about that yet, because unless he could get up and get off this beach, nothing else mattered anyway.  He felt a shadow move over his body, and then he saw the Millennium Falcon passing overhead, on its way to the landing site.

_Help is here._

 

…………………………

 

 

Aboard the Resistance transport, rumors were flying. The ship and its crew were a tiny universe all to themselves, so very little escaped notice and even less escaped rumor. Word was, something had happened between General Organa and that Sith; and when those words reached Finn, his reaction was immediate. He didn’t care how much his back ached, or who got in his way, he was going to find his general and see for himself if she was all right. As he marched himself towards the command center, he remembered that Poe was also with a Sith; he’d been in that visitor ship for hours now. Finn decided to make a slight detour to check on Poe first. When he arrived at the visitor’s ship, he saw the other Sith standing there, just outside the open door.

Alone.

“You have one of our pilots inside your vessel,” Finn told the Sith loudly. “I want to see him.”

“Not now,” the Sith seemed amused by the challenging tone of Finn’s words. “He’s… occupied.”

“I will see him,” Finn stood firm, “and I will see him *now*.”

The amusement vanished from the Sith’s face. He took a step towards Finn, coming just close enough to illustrate exactly how much bigger he was than the Resistance fighter.

“He is occupied,” Dar Na repeated. “My orders are not to disturb him.” He inspected Finn for a minute, and then he added, “You lack status to make demands.”

“If you don’t let me see him,” Finn was really angry now; rage was boiling up from someplace deep down inside, “I’ll show you status.”

The Sith’s face changed again; this time to a savage smile. And his eyes changed, too; it was something Finn had never seen before, but he’d heard about it.  The fierce yellow glow in those eyes told him that he might have just made a very bad mistake.

 

………….

 

Leia Organa looked at her face in the mirror to see if the redness in her eyes was any better.  She’d lost half an hour crying her heart out, but she was not willing to lose any more time trying to cover up the evidence.  She’d left Dar Noaa and his unfinished story waiting while she came here to clean herself up; left the ship’s personnel to speculate about what and why.

_Time to put the woman away and be the general again._

Leia was so weary of that thought. She’d tried more than once to put the general away permanently, but each time, her plan was aborted by some new threat to the Republic that needed her attention. Each time, she answered the call to duty, and each time, some part of her was lost in the process. She took a deep breath, wished the face in the mirror good luck and returned to the command center.

Dar Noaa was where she’d left him. He was sitting on a chair, lost in thought, when she opened the door and walked in, so he didn’t notice her until the sound of the door closing behind her caught his attention. He started to get up as if to come to her, but then reconsidered and stayed put. 

 _He’s keeping it formal_ , Leia thought. _Good._

“Back to business,” she walked to the chair next to him and sat. “Where were we?”

“Your brother,” Dar Noaa replied, “suggesting that you could help me find a way to help me get access to information.”

“That won’t be easy,” Leia frowned. “We lost everything in the Starkiller attack; if it was Republic-based, it’s either gone or abandoned. We’re getting by with a few old carrier wave systems and messengers.”

“I’d feared as much,” Dar Noaa absently massaged his sore jaw, “What I’m thinking now is that the only real opportunity lies with the First Order.  I have certain… skills… that they would find attractive; I think I’d be able to hide in plain sight, get inside…”

“… get yourself killed...” Leia interrupted him.

“That’s a risk I am not afraid to take,” he replied, then continued. “And I’m not talking about their homeworld; something the size of the First Order has to have hundreds, maybe thousands, of satellite centers, every one of which is a copy of all the others. Uniformity is their strength,  but it’s also their weakness.  Find one with low priority, be a refugee; I can get inside without telling a single lie to do it.”

Leia considered making a remark about his ego, but the truth was that he was right. Dar Noaa was educated; he was also experienced in obtaining and analyzing alien technology; much of it gained in the service of the Republic.  And he was Sith; that alone could probably get him in. Getting him back out would be a different matter.  But  it was Luke himself that sent him to her for help, so she would give it if she could; and it just so happened that there was someone onboard who might have some useful knowledge to share about the First Order.

“There’s someone here I want you to talk to;” she began, “he came to us from the First Order, and he might know of a few destinations you could consider.”

“Really? How’d that happen?”

“That’s a long story,” Leia looked away from him, as if looking back in time. “He’s an interesting young man. I’ll send for him.” She reached out to tap the comlink, but it spoke first.

“Sorry to interrupt, General,” the voice said, “but there’s been an incident in the hanger; one of our people and the visitor…”

“We’re on our way.”

 

…………………….

 

 

Chewbacca stood on the Falcon’s entry ramp; driven out of his own ship by the foul-smelling potion that Maz Katana had dug out of one of her crates and was now painting Luke Skywalker with.  As soon as they were sure the First Order ships were gone, he’d brought the Falcon back, staying low and careful all the way to the island.  Once there, they had surprisingly little trouble locating Luke on the beach; in fact, it seemed that Maz knew exactly where to look first. Chewbacca had feared the worst, but they found Luke alive; he was sitting up, burns on his face and arms, melted hand, and there was a patch of hair burned off, too, and his legs were weak; he was unable to stand, so Chewbacca lifted and carried him back to the Falcon and Maz took over from there.  She claimed the potion would heal his skin quickly, but the stench of it made Chewbacca sick to his stomach, so he excused himself to the outside.  After a few breaths to clear his nose, he surveyed the view and decided to investigate the mystery of just what happened here the night before.  The storm had washed everything and the sea had scoured the stone with beach sand; the site seemed pristine, untouched.

_Except for those…_

The larger stones and boulders were all speckled now. Chewbacca walked to one and examined it closely; the speckles were almost perfectly circular, similar in size and depth. Blast points, every one of them, meaning there had to have been one remarkably nasty firefight here last night. But that was all the stones had to tell, everything else was washed away.

Chewbacca climbed the stone steps to the place where Luke said he’d faced Kylo Ren. It was pretty much the same story as below; any footprints in mud had been pounded out by the rain, leaving the now-drying area smooth and featureless.

_Except for that..._

Luke’s lightsaber; it was lying on its side, half buried by mud, but its exposed half was shining bright in the morning sun.  Chewbacca gently pried it out, wiped as much of the remaining mud off as he could with a hand, and then tested it. It ignited perfectly, so he switched it back off, tucked it inside a pouch on his carbine belt and then he searched the rest of the area and the stone huts. Those yielded nothing, so he headed back down the stone steps, crossed behind the Falcon and walked the beach. They’d found nothing on their way to find Luke, so he walked the other way, toward the point. His long legs covered the distance quickly, and when he reached the rocks of the point, he made a disturbing discovery. Wedged between two of them, snagged by its carry strap, was the girl’s staff. Chewbacca’s heart ached; Rey was a child of the desert, if she’d taken refuge in the rocks the night before, would she have known to climb high enough to escape the storm surge? Chewbacca pried the staff free from the rocks and without realizing it, automatically put it in the same position she would have to carry it before he continued his search.

 

Back at the Falcon, Maz was giving Luke a dose of verbal medicine as she applied the healing potion to his face.

“Does this *hurt*?” she asked. “Good! Maybe for once, you’ll learn something.”

“I learned something, Maz,” Luke’s tone was humble.  “I learned a great deal.”

“Hmmm,” Maz sounded unconvinced. She put the potion aside and picked up the lump of metal that was once Luke’s right hand, raising his arm. “What about this? There’s nothing in my crates that can fix this; it’s going to have to come off.”

“I know,” Luke reclaimed his arm from her. Removing the stump would be unpleasant, but it would be necessary to prevent infection, which meant it had to happen soon. He cradled the stump in his left hand and laid both to rest on his chest. “Maz, I have to ask you something.”

“Ask,” she replied.  “If I know the answer, I will tell you.”

“What do you know about Force-lightning?”

The expression on Maz’s face told Luke that she’d been expecting the question.

“A weapon from the Dark Side,” she answered, “used by the Sith. Pulled from deep wells of hate and rage, it was powerful, destructive to both user and target; a true horror, but a pretty shade of blue.”

“That’s what I thought,” Luke said. His memory of the first time he’d experienced it was still vivid; the color, the pain, all of it. “Have you ever heard of it being red?”

“Red? No; never,” Maz’s eyes grew large with wonder, then intense curiosity. “Is *that* what you saw?”

“Yes. Any ideas?”

“Not one.”

At that moment, Chewbacca appeared in the communal space entry. He placed Rey’s staff against the wall almost reverently, then came to Luke and presented him with his lightsaber. Luke pulled his left hand out from under the stump and took it.

“It’s still functional, “Chewbacca growled. Luke saw him exchange a look with Maz, then they both looked at R2D2, and he knew what they were thinking; the stump had to come off and they were deciding which one of them should do it.

“No,” he said. “We’re going to handle this in a different way.”

“How?”  Maz asked.

“The same way we managed it before.”

Chewbacca didn’t linger to hear Luke’s explanation to Maz; he knew the story. Instead, he went through the tunnel to the cockpit and started prepping the Falcon for flight.

Luke would know how to find his sister.  He hoped.

 

…………………….

 

 

 Aboard the Resistance transport, in the hanger, the situation was still tense; but by the time Leia and Dar Noaa arrived on the scene, the fight had already been broken up. In front of the visitor ship, the young Sith was standing surrounded, but not touched by, Resistance fighters. Not far away, three Resistance fighters were restraining one of their own.  Dar Noaa went directly to Dar Na and addressed him in their native language to keep it publicly private. Dar Na replied in kind, gesturing wildly as he recounted his side of the story to Dar Noaa, who listened impassively. Everyone else watched in uneasy fascination because, while it was impossible to understand what was being said, the context needed no translation – the Resistance fighter now in custody was clearly the aggressor.  Then the young Sith noticed Dar Noaa’s swollen lip and the conversation changed in tone; Dar Noaa had to raise a hand to settle the younger Sith down again. Dar Na pointed to the offending Resistance fighter and said something that made Dar Noaa laugh and that was the end of it. The young Sith went back into the visitor ship and Dar Noaa walked back to Leia.

“It’s nothing," he reassured her, “just the exuberance of youth. Dar Na says that *this* one…” He turned to point and saw, really saw, the offender for the first time – and totally lost his train of thought.

“That’s Finn,” Leia said. “He’s the one I told you about.”

“You said he came from the First Order,” Dar Noaa was staring intently at Finn now. “Really?”

“Yes.”

“That’s…” He was confused; unusual for him, and he did not like the feeling. “… interesting.”  Then he walked over to the foursome for a closer look. Leia quickly caught up with him.

“What are you doing?” she asked quietly.

“Don’t you see it?” he replied without looking at her. “Can’t you see it?” Puzzled, he paused and looked at her for a second, then remembered. “That’s right; you don’t see because you *won’t* see.”

Her face flushed red; he’d made it too personal, but she kept her composure and didn’t respond in kind. Instead, she punished him with a warning look.

“Don’t you talk to her like that!” the offending Resistance fighter shouted and strained to free himself from his comrades, but only managed to draw Dar Noaa’s attention again. Dar Noaa came close and stared into his eyes; the young man sensed his presence inside. Confusion, fear and then anger followed, and then Dar Noaa felt himself being pushed out.

“Excellent!” Da Noaa exclaimed. He was so pleased with what he’d just witnessed that it was a full minute before he realized that he’d said it out loud. Leia was looking at him expectantly; her expression told him there’d better be an explanation coming, but he wasn’t going to deliver one here.  He took a step back, took a breath, and changed tactics.

“You are called Finn?” he asked. “From the First Order?”

“Yes.” Finn’s voice was full of resentment, with just a touch of fear.  

“Well, Finn,” Dar Noaa said, “I was just about to give your general a tour of this vessel, and I think you should join us. Let’s go find your friend.”

 

……………………

 

 

The Millennium Falcon was in space again.  

 

Luke was in the cockpit with Chewbacca, using the Force to navigate the galaxy. They would make a jump, drop out so Luke and R2D2 could take bearings, then they’d jump again; but with each jump, Luke grew more confident that they were going in the right direction.  Trusting Luke was Chewbacca’s only option for this trip, but this time Maz agreed that it was the right decision. Luke would find Leia, and with her, the Resistance; they might be able to replace Luke’s hand with another one, which would be a much better outcome than simply slicing it off with a lightsaber would be.  

The problem was time; they were racing to find the Resistance before infection made replacing the hand impossible, but the going was slow and the risk was huge. One misjudgment on one jump and they would lose their way.  This left little time for anything else, so Chewbacca had to settle for “no, she’s alive” as an explanation regarding Rey’s welfare.  For the time being, that was enough.

Maz had appeared several times with drinks and food, but hadn’t returned since, so Chewbacca figured she was getting some much-needed rest. She wasn’t young anymore, and Chewbacca could see how quickly events were tiring her. She’d always had a tendency to speak bluntly, but lately she seemed more impatient than he’d ever seen her before.  Chewbacca attributed that to age and fatigue; and he should know, because his own body was telling him that he was not the Wookie that he once was; so once again, the problem was time. When he got the chance, he’d have a chat with Maz about that.

 

……………………….

 

 

On the other side of the Falcon, Maz was standing in the galley that Han Solo built for Leia as a wedding present a long time ago, but she wasn’t preparing food; she was talking in a very low voice.

“Red Force-lightening;” she whispered angrily. “I didn’t see that coming - and neither did you. What if the child isn’t up to the challenge?”

 _“Trust to time,”_ a gentle voice inside her head replied.

“Well, she’s got plenty of that now;” Maz complained, “wherever she is; wherever *they* are.”

_“Faith you must have.”_

“I’d have more faith if we were there to help them,” Maz closed her eyes and imagined all the possibilities. “It’s just them now, isn’t it?”

 

 

………………………..

Intermission

 


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've stayed til now, then you know there is one character we haven't heard from yet. Be advised, it's dark. 
> 
> But even a Heart of Darkness is still a heart...

 

-10- 

 

_Silence._

_The voices, the screams, the whispers, were all gone now; the only presence he felt was his own; and soon, that, too, would fade and all that would remain would be the Silence._

_He’d been here before…_

_The morning light coming in the window didn’t wake Ben Solo; he had not been asleep. The new meds weren’t working; and he’d been unable to sleep for four nights straight now. The ache in his head was about the same, but the voices had gone from the usual ceaseless murmur to a deafening roar of gibberish. The Medic suggested that he try a higher dose, but what he was taking already made him so sick he had to lie down and stay down to avoid suffering a round of violent nausea. He could have taken the sleep med, too, and put himself out cold; but often that resulted in days and days spent unconscious followed by waking up to a mess._

_Another sleepless night, but least he’d been spared that._

_Anyway, it was morning again; it was also his day to oversee morning exercise at the Academy. Fortunately, that wouldn’t require too much attention or effort on his part; all he had to do was show up. The older Padawans knew the routine, so most of them barely took notice of him. The younger Padawans would be bursting with morning energy but not much skill, so they would probably pester him about nonsense; but he didn’t mind that because, unlike the older Padawans, the younger ones didn’t seem to be afraid of him at all. Eventually they would witness one of his ‘seizures’, that was the name they’d given it, and after that, they would never look at him with the same eyes again._

_That’s just how things were, how things always were and how they would always be. So, he got dressed, making himself only as presentable as was absolutely necessary, and then headed off to work._

_A thick, low fog still lingered over the grassy open common that separated the Jedi Quarters from the outer wall of the Academy itself. Dense enough to obscure everything that entered or might lie below, the heavy damp air quickly seeped into Ben’s robe and pant leg; a common occurrence, but this morning it felt unusually quick and surprisingly cold. Ben amused himself by imagining that some mysterious dark being had come during the night and dug holes in the common, laying traps for careless Jedi insomniacs like himself to tumble into. Not_ _that he was a Jedi; there was no way that would ever happen. His uncle had made that very clear; there were many aspects of Jedi training that because of his ‘seizures’, Ben Solo would never be exposed to._

_That was the saving grace of finding himself here in his uncle's domain, because Ben Solo had no wish to become a Jedi._

Ever.

_The fantasy in the fog at his feet was irresistible, so Ben finished his walk across the common by deftly evading each and every imaginary trap until he arrived at the Academy wall; and having survived, followed the wall to its end and around to continue on to the main gate.  He was pleasantly surprised when he saw somebody standing there._

_“Lor San Tekka!” Ben called out and quickened his pace. “It’s good to see you!”_

_There were few people in the galaxy that Ben could say he truly admired, but Lor San Tekka was at the top of his list. Tekka was a long-time friend of Uncle Luke’s; he was also sometimes a partner in mysterious missions that would take his uncle away from the Academy for weeks at a time, but Ben didn’t hold that against him because when they would return, Tekka would have exciting stories to tell about their adventures. Uncle Luke never told stories; he always acted as if sharing what he’d been doing was in some way dangerous for Ben to hear about. Tekka had no such fears, though; Ben had once overheard him arguing with his uncle about it:_

_“Lies of omission are still lies; ignorance is no defense;” Tekka had said. “The boy has a right to know.”_

_From that day on, Ben regarded Tekka as his champion - Lor San Tekka, the sole defender of Ben Solo’s Right to Know. He approached his hero and tapped his arm in greeting._

_“If you’ve come to see Master Luke;” Ben informed him, “he’s not here.”_

_“Ben,” Tekka’s tone was shockingly serious. “You must come with me.”_

_“Why? What’s wrong?” Confusion and fear flooded Ben’s mind; what terrible news had Tekka brought that he couldn’t tell him right here and now? Uncle Luke? *Mother*? He didn’t want to know. “I can’t; I’m working;” he smiled weakly, went to the gate and waved it open. “Come inside with me and we’ll…”_

_Beyond the open gate, Ben saw that the inner common was crowded with beings; he saw the expected Padawans, but with them, he saw all the Jedi instructors – and with them, beings he’d never seen before._

_They were all staring at him._

_“It’s too late,” Tekka’s voice came from behind him. It was filled with sorrow. “Too late!”_

_………………………….._

When Rey finally regained consciousness, the Ren transport was surprisingly quiet. Aside from a low frequency hum that was barely audible, the dimly lit cockpit showed no signs of activity. The wave form was dark; it offered no clues to where they were, or where they might be going. Rey had a feeling that the ship was in hyperspace, but beyond that, nothing.  She got up from her seat and checked on the monster’s condition. Shallow breathing, but there was a weak, but steady, pulse now and he wasn’t as cold as before; but he didn’t react to being touched.  Rey left him in the seat, and made her way out to the ship’s central corridor to explore.

The corridor was dark; its walls felt the same as the waveform did, cold and ceramic. Rey ran her hands over the surface carefully, trying to feel where a door seal might be, or an irregularity that indicated a touch pad’s location. She did feel several places that suggested doors, but nothing she tried to activate them worked.  The unyielding walls and darkness made Rey feel as if she were inside a tomb, as well it might be unless she could find a way to get control of it, or at least get access to what resources it possessed – like a sanitary station. Rey was tired, sore and thirsty, but most of all she needed to urinate, and it was looking as if the floor was the only option for that.  But before she soiled the ship’s corridor, Rey decided to try one more time to see if she could communicate with the ship. She felt her way back to the cockpit, approached the waveform and spoke to it.

“I know you can hear me,” she said loudly. That was a lie, of course; she only hoped it could hear her. “If you can hear me, respond.”

No response came.

Rey leaned over the monster, untied his hands, took hold of the right one as she had seen the Ren Knight do, and placed it onto the waveform. Resting her own hand on top of it to keep it in position, she tried again.

“I know you can hear me,” she repeated. “*Please*, respond.”

No response came.

“I *know* you can hear me,” she was angry now. “We need water; we need food,” Perhaps the ship needed to have things explained. “*He* needs medical attention. If you don’t respond, we’ll die here, him and me, both; and you will become a tomb.”

A soft red glow appeared, coming from beneath and surrounding Ren’s hand; Rey kept her hold on it, and waited. The waveform stayed dark, though; it didn’t become a display like it had before; instead, three beams of light came from above to illuminate Ren. Several seconds later, the light moved to illuminate Rey, and then the ceiling went dark again.  A few seconds after that, the waveform display illuminated, at least a portion of it did, then Rey heard a soft “ding” followed by the sounds of movement in the corridor behind her. She put Ren’s hand back on his lap and went to see what was happening.

The corridor was now illuminated with the same soft glow that lit the cockpit. Rey could see thin black shadows of seams in the walls now, but no way to activate anything. She was running her fingers over the wall again when the wall at the far end of the corridor opened on its own, and Rey hurried to investigate.  The ship was offering her access to what appeared to be someone’s private quarters. It was absolutely austere; a smooth hard bed board flowed from the far wall, one side of the room had a small waveform and a stool, the other wall was molded shelves and cabinets – and an alcove that revealed the greatly desired wash station and waste seat. Rey immediately made use of both.  The waste seat cleaned itself as soon as she got off, and the water from the wash station was cold but tasteless. Rey splashed a little water on her face before she noticed that there were no drying cloths, but a sudden surprise gust of warm air did the job for her. Fortified by being emptied and refilled, Rey stood in the middle of the room and addressed the ship again.

“I need more light,” she said. The walls brightened immediately. “Thank you.”

The additional light revealed that there were a few objects on the shelves; a small enameled box, a torn section of an old book and a clear canister filled with many small cubes, all exactly the same in size and color.  Then Rey opened one of the cabinets and discovered it stored clothing; only a few pieces and all of it black. Rey considered trying them on for size, but then she decided that could wait and pulled everything out, gathered it all up and started back to the cockpit.

As soon as she was in the corridor, Rey saw something jutting out from the side wall. When she got to it, she saw that it was a fully packed medical storage unit. When she leaned over to examine the contents, a bright, tight beam of light came from above, illuminating one item inside. Putting the clothing to hang on the edge of the unit side, Rey picked the item up and discovered that it was an infusion pack, something she knew about - and more importantly, how to use. It was very simple, ‘preloaded’, all one had to do was strap it to an arm and the device would locate a vein, insert a catheter and start to pump fluids. Holding the unit in one hand, Rey retrieved the clothing with the other and returned to the cockpit.

The monster was exactly as she’d left him.

Rey tried to push up the thick ridged sleeve on the right arm, but it wouldn’t budge; so she tried the left arm, same result.  Then she spotted a section of sleeve that had been sliced open somehow, so she set the unit there and switched it on. After that, she draped the arm across the chest to get it out of the way, and then she pulled slowly but firmly on the black dress. The material was not only lighter and weaker than the sleeves were; it was also singed and shredded, so it parted easily. Two good pulls and Rey was looking at the monster’s body.

Just above the hip, there was a slice of him missing; not deep but nasty. Above that, his ribs were purple and blue with the most massive bruise she’d ever seen.  This was bad, and she knew it.

“I don’t know what to do here.” She addressed the ship, “I need your help.”

The overhead lights came on again, this time concentrated on Ren’s exposed side. After several long minutes, the lights went out again, and Rey heard the sound of dings coming from the corridor and she went to see what the ship had to offer her now.

 

 

………………………

 

 

_It was just an aging agricultural shed, a place where domestic animals and vermin would take shelter, but tonight it was sanctuary._ _He’d been on the move for two days, keeping his hood up and his head down, staying to side alleys and footpaths to avoid his pursuers, carrying a small bundle that was everything he owned._

_The confrontation at the Academy had started calmly enough; Lor San Tekka did the talking. Ben stood beside him, listening in disbelief as his hero told the crowd surrounding them that yes, it was true – Luke Skywalker was the *son*, Leia Organa was the* daughter* - and so, Ben Solo was the *grandson* - of_ **Darth Vader** _._

_At first, Ben thought it had to be somebody’s sick idea of a joke, and soon they would say so and this would end with laughter._

_But nobody laughed._

_Instead, every word out of Tekka’s mouth seemed to make them angrier; Ben could sense it, and he was terrified. Voices came from the crowd, saying terrible things about his mother and uncle, neither of whom was there to answer for the crime of being born, so quickly the terrible things became about him._

_“Look at him! We all know what he is - now we know *why*!”_

_“…demon from the Darkside!”_

_“…poisoning our children’s minds!”_

_And finally, inevitably…_

_“Get him!”_

_Ben saw them push Tekka aside, and then down, to be lost in the flow of outraged beings that now rushed toward him. They grabbed Ben by his arms and legs, even by his hair, and dragged him across the common, through the main gate and onto the outside common he’d only just crossed minutes before. It was there they dumped him onto the grass and kicked and spit on him until the Jedi instructors caught up and backed them off by igniting their lightsabers. One of them helped Ben to his feet, and then assisted him to the door of Jedi Quarters, where another was waiting with a small bundle._

_“Here are your things,” the instructor pushed the bundle at Ben’s chest, “Take them and go while you still can.”_

_Throbbing with pain and half-blind from the beating, Ben hugged it tightly and fled, going the back way, using the path they would use when they wished to avoid others, and into the forest beyond. Someone in the angry mob spotted him, and they came charging after him, but Ben knew the forest well and managed to elude them. The chase continued all that day and through the night as well, giving him no time to rest or think, and it was only animal instinct that saved him. By the next morning, the mob had tired of the hunt and, one by one, they dissolved into the morning fog and were gone._

_After that, Ben just kept moving, even though he had no idea where to. Every time he heard voices, he would hide until they faded away, and then move on again. He was exhausted and his body ached, but it was impossible to rest, and when he tried, his mind would punish him with frightening images and voices, always the voices, until it became unbearable._

_It was late twilight of the second day when he came upon the shed and took refuge there. Thankfully, the animals took no interest in him and he found a corner to collapse in. Hoping that his meds would provide some relief, he untied the bundle and searched, but none were there; the Jedi had provided him with two food ration bars and two water packs; and two personal items. One was a handwritten letter from his mother that he’d kept and the other was the small enameled box his father had sent him from somewhere sometime. Ben opened the box, pulled out the pouch within and emptied the contents into his hand._

_It was a small dagger; but beautifully crafted and exquisitely sharp; he’d kept the knife in its case, pristine, since the day he’d received it along with yet another note from his father saying that he was so sorry, but he would not be coming after all…_

_………………_

 

“I’m hungry,” Rey said. “If I’m to continue here, I need food. What is there to eat?”

Somewhere between changing out the infusion cartridge and packing the monster’s wound, Rey began to understand the nature of the deal she’d struck with the ship; as long she phrased what she said in a manner that included *him*, the ship was willing to grant her requests. Their communication was simple; she asked and if the ship could provide, it replied with a ding. If the ship could not provide, it stayed silent.

“Oh, and I need something to cut those sleeves off with, too.”

Several seconds later, she heard the reply; the ding came from the far end of the corridor, from the only room the ship had granted her access to so far. When she got there, she saw the overhead light pointing to the canister of cubes she’d looked at earlier. She went to it, picked it up and opened it; then shook a cube out into her palm for examination. Being from Jakku, Rey considered herself an authority on unappetizing food, but this cube challenged even her low standards for designation as fit to eat. No aroma, no real color, and a curious dry crumbly texture when she poked it with a finger. So far, the ship had been truthful to her, so she gingerly lifted the cube with two fingers and sampled it. After an initial crunch, it simply dissolved in her mouth and was gone in one swallow. No taste at all, either; it was as if she’d just eaten air. She counted off seconds while she waited to see if there was going to be some horrible reaction to the cube, but nothing happened, except that she did, in fact, feel a little bit less hungry.  If the monster ever woke up, he might be able to manage these, which was probably why the ship offered them in the first place. Rey shook out one more cube and ate it, then closed the canister and started back, but stopped when she saw an overhead light directing her to a newly opened wall unit.

More medical supplies; this time the light pointed to a wide roll of what appeared to be fabric, but when Rey felt the material, it was some kind of stretchy polymer and Rey had no idea what she was supposed to do with it. That didn’t matter because the ship wanted it, so Rey complied. The unit also provided a pair of seriously strong-looking shears, indicating that the ship agreed that those sleeves should come off.  Rey carried everything back and added it to the growing pile on the cockpit floor.

The monster’s arms were not where she’d left them; suggesting that perhaps he’d moved while she was out of the room. They were hanging at his sides now, which made them easy to attack with the shears, but it was slow going. Once the material dropped away, Rey saw that both arms were marked with numerous small scars, not surprising considering what he was; but they were also disturbingly thin, as if something had sucked the very substance out of them. The overhead light pointed to the pile on the floor, indicating the roll of polymer material and then to Ren’s chest. It took a few seconds for Rey to understand what the ship wanted; the roll was to be a wrap for the monster’s ribs. The task seemed pretty straight forward, but getting the material behind him properly was difficult; Rey had to climb all over him to get it into the right position, and now she had to pull it together so it would provide support.  It resisted her first attempt, then her second attempt, so finally she decided to straddle his legs and sit on his thighs to see if that would give her any leverage.  His body recognized the added weight; it jerked ever so slightly, then it went still again.

Rey leaned in, grasped the ends of the material and started to pull.

 

 

……………….

_Silence._

_He no longer felt the pain; he no longer felt the cold; he felt only himself fading away._

_He was lying there in the corner of the shed, watching in detached curiosity as the bravest of the vermin approached him warily and began to feed; using long, slender tongues to lap up the blood that was spreading slowly onto the hard clay floor. That was when the Silence found him. It was something he’d never, ever, experienced before; and he was awestruck by how wonderful it felt to be immersed in it, to be engulphed by it._

_Absolute, perfect silence. If only I'd known about this before, I would have come here much sooner._

_I’m going to stay right here forever…_

_Suddenly, the voices were back. They were hushed and hurried, but Ben heard them clearly._

_“Here he is! Over here! Quickly!”_

_Cold gloved hands grabbed hold of his legs and pulled him from the corner to the center of the shed; more hands grabbed his arms and suddenly he was being carried, out of the shed and into the night. There were lights and movement, and then he was on the ground being suffocated by activity. He felt hands on his wrists; then hands wrapping them tightly, applying pressure._

_“No,” he protested._

_“No,” he begged._

_But they weren’t listening. He felt the cold pressure of a med gun against his shoulder, then the sting of the injection, and after that he felt nothing at all…_

_Sometime later, he never would know just how long, he awoke in a strange place, surrounded by strangers. Through the fog of heavy medication, he slowly came to know that he was in a very special medical unit, getting very special care, that he’d been rescued at ‘the last minute’ by the Knights of Ren, whoever they were, and that he was safe. That was all he needed to know for now, they told him; everything else could wait until he was healed and ready to start his new life, whatever that meant…_

_They’d taken him away from the Silence that night, and he’d yearned for it ever since, and now he was back._

_This time, I’m going to stay here forever._

_Suddenly he was not alone in the Silence; someone was invading it, someone was filling his mind with sound again. A voice!_

“Dammit! _She was swearing,_ “Dammit!”

_……………………_

“*Dammit*!”

 

Rey was leaning in hard, so hard against the monster now that she feared she must be crushing him, but the final few millimeters of the material simply would not give, so she had to strain as hard as she could to stretch them until they met and the micro-edges would catch and hold. She took a deep breath, gave one more tremendous, painful pull and finally the two ends touched.  Mission accomplished, she released the material, straightened herself, then leaned back, grabbed the armrests of his seat, and sat there with her eyes closed, gasping to recover the breath she’s just used up.

When she opened her eyes again, she saw his eyes looking back. The monster was awake, and the expression on his face was one of complete bewilderment.

For a second, Rey was frozen in place, trapped in a confusing mixture of hate, relief and embarrassment.  She truly hated this monster; yet she was also truly relieved to see him awake, and she was fully aware of where she was and what she’d just been doing and how that must have looked.

“Where am I?” he asked.

There were a thousand replies that Rey could have made, every one of them viciously appropriate for the situation, but Rey knew instantly what she should say; something that would let him know in no uncertain terms just who was in charge here. She would drive the words in deep, too; she was going to nail him right to wall with them:

“You’re *my* guest.”

 

…………………..


	11. Chapter 11

-11-

 

Aboard the Resistance transport, the tour of the visiting vessel turned out to be a very short one for Finn. The Sith that invited him to tag along was no longer quite so interested in him, but instead was quickly pointing out various features of the vessel to General Organa.  Finn fell behind, and used the space to take a few quick looks around for himself as he followed. As usual now, BB8 stayed at his feet, rolling when he walked and stopping when he did. They passed through the main corridor and entered the cockpit, where he saw Poe running a simulated encounter with something much bigger than the vessel he was “flying”, only he was flying not around, but *inside* the something. Poe was known for his “intrusion” flights, mostly unauthorized, that caused fits among his superiors, so it was no surprise that one such flight was what he would choose to experience with the visitor.

But the blue holographic image that Poe was zipping through felt familiar to Finn, and it was so realistic that it seemed more like a rehearsal than a training exercise. Dar Noaa touched the waveform and interrupted the session; the display instantly changed from blue to red, and Poe jerked his hands off it as if he’d just received an electric shock.

“Hey!” Poe protested loudly, “I wasn’t done yet! And *ouch*!”

“I apologize,” Dar Noaa replied, “but I wish to show the general how the system works; I need you and Finn here to step outside for a while.”

“Yes,” Poe’s face showed disappointment; but he quickly remembered who he was talking to and added, “Sir.” He stood up, suspended his hand over the waveform but didn’t try to touch it, “See you later, Viz.”

“Viz?” Dar Noaa asked.

“A ship needs a name, sir,” Poe explained. “Everyone here is calling it the Visitor; sounds right to me; so it’s Viz for short.”

“The Visitor, hmmm,” Dar Noaa considered naming a machine, even one as extraordinary as this one, a silly human habit; but since technically the vessel was the property of humans, he saw no harm in allowing Poe the fancy, especially since he had plans for him. “All right, the Visitor it is.” Then he pointed to the exit. “Out you go; but don’t go far, I wish to speak with you both.”

 

“Wait here,” the young Sith told them. “You will be called back.” Then Dar Na returned inside, and Finn realized that BB8 had not come out with them.

“Where’s BB8?” he asked.

“I think he wanted to stay with the general,” Poe replied, “I wish I could have; I wasn’t done yet.”

“You’ve been in there for hours, you know.”

“Was I?”

“Yes!” Finn lectured him, “I was getting worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” Poe raised open hands. “In fact, I am great! This ship is… something, Finn; really *something*. The only thing to worry about in there is that big Sith – I think he wants me.”

“Wants you for what?”

Poe gave Finn a curious side glance, and then realized that Finn’s question was entirely serious.

“He *wants* me,” Poe repeated; then added, “you know…”

“What?”

“*Sex*, Finn,” Poe wondered what the First Order slang for it could be. “Sex; the happy hump, the terrific tumble, the frenzied fu…”

“Uh,” Finn made a face, “That.”

“Uh?” Poe was curious now. “Is sex in the First Order really that bad?”

“The worst,” Finn made a “hands off” gesture; just remembering made him uncomfortable. “They only made us do it once, though; one time so they could take samples and make measurements; then we never had to do it again.”

Poe was staring at Finn now; his mouth was open but no words were coming out.

“But, luckily,” Finn reassured him, “every couple of months, you get a shot, and you’re fine.”

“A shot?”

“Yes; it takes care of everything.”

“Uh, Finn,” Poe wasn’t sure exactly how to phrase the question in his mind. “Uh, when was the last time you had one of those shots?”

“Oh,” Finn’s eyes moved as he searched his memory, “Not sure; eight weeks, maybe more; I don’t keep track; it’s all scheduled for us. Why?”

“Did they ever tell you,” Poe asked, “what would happen if you were to suddenly, er, *stop* getting those shots?”

“No,” Finn wondered where Poe was taking this; it sounded ominous. “What’s going to happen?”

“Well,” Poe put his hand on Finn’s arm, “you know how irritable you’ve been lately? Impatient, even short tempered?”

“That’s kind of what happens,” Finn growled, “when somebody slices your back open with a lightsaber.”

“See that?” Poe patted Finn’s arm, “You’re already getting angry, and I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.”

“I’m not angry; I’m just…”

“You sure are, Finn!” Poe slapped Finn’s arm now. “I’m going to walk you back to Medical right now, and they are going to have something really enlightening to tell you.”

Finn didn’t understand what Poe was so excited about, but he figured the only way to find out was to go along.

 

 

………………

 

 

As soon as the others had gone, Dar Noaa began a very detailed explanation of how the waveform display worked, but that was not what Leia was interested in hearing at the moment. She’d just witnessed the Sith testing Finn, and she wanted to know what he’d discovered that had made him so excited. Leia had seen the testing many times before; but Luke was always subtle about it so that not even the subject would realize it was happening.  Dar Noaa, on the other hand, could be exasperatingly spontaneous; sometimes the Sith in him overwhelmed the Scitech, and more than once Leia was called in to negotiate when the Republic found themselves having trouble keeping their “A and A” operative in line. Most of the time, she learned, it was not what he said that got him into trouble, it was how he said it. She tried talking to him about diplomacy, but that was not a language he had any desire to learn; so she resolved the problems when they arose by simply telling him what to say and who to say it to; and that actually worked.

It should, she figured, work right now.

“This is all very interesting, Noah,” she interrupted his presentation, “but it’s not what I want to talk about; and it’s not why you just sent the children out to play. Tell me about Finn.”

“Yes,” Dar Noaa lifted his hand and the display went dark. “Finn; he’s a puzzle.”

“In what way?”

“He’s strong with the Force.”

“Really?”

“You’d know that if you…”

“But I don’t,” Leia cut him off sharply. “What’s the puzzle?”

“How did someone like him survive undetected all this time in the ranks of the First Order?” Dar Noaa was asking himself as well as sharing with her; this was a huge discovery and he wanted to understand all of the implications that came with it. “They take conscripts at an early age; they screen and test repeatedly for decades; and yet somehow, this Finn made it all the way to adulthood within their ranks without being noticed. I can’t understand how; I felt him not long after my arrival here; how could they have missed it there for so long?”

“Perhaps,” Leia said, “somebody was protecting him.”

“If so,” Dar Noaa found that hard to imagine, but Finn was a fact, “it’s an astonishing accomplishment; I want to know more about it. And Finn is remarkable; both for how strong he is and how utterly unaware he is of it. “

“So he’s a sleeper?”

“*Was* a sleeper is a better term,” Dar Noaa explained.  “Right now he’s in an in-between state, but that won’t last much longer because he’s been exposed - and not just to me.”

“No,” Leia replied reluctantly, “not just to you.” Dar Noaa was looking at her now, waiting, but the words were hard to say. “Finn was exposed to my son.”

“Your son?” Dar Noaa’s eyes flickered with interest. “In what way?”

“Finn served on a First Order destroyer where my son was.”

“The Finalizer. “

“You know about it?”

“I was assigned to researching that monstrosity the day they learned that it existed,” he told her, “so I know a little; I know that it’s the First Order’s flagship, their showpiece, and the only place you’ll find the Kylo when he’s not out dealing death with the Knights of Ren.” He heard himself say it, caught his breath and then added, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s all right,” Leia bowed her head slightly in resignation. “It’s the truth.”

“Now it’s even more of a puzzle,” Dar Noaa said. “I sensed him here easily, and your son; you know…”

“There’s more, Noah,” she looked up at him again, “Finn fought him.”

“What?”

“In a lightsaber duel.”

“*What*?”

“Finn was badly injured, but he survived it.”

“**What**?” Dar Noaa’s eyes were glowing now.

“You should talk to him.”

“Yes, I…” he stopped himself, “… no wait; there’s something I have to show you first. Put your hand on the waveform...” he took her hand and pulled. “… right… here.”

The instant Leia’s hand touched the surface, the entire wall lit up; brilliant green patterns raced across it for several seconds, and then it settled back to black.

“Interesting,” Dar Noaa said quietly. “Now say your name.”

“Leia Organa.”

The waveform display appeared before her, glowing green. Dar Noaa placed his hand next to hers and the display divided into two, his red while hers remained green.

“If anything should happen to me,” Dar Noaa said loudly, addressing the vessel, “you will accept Leia Organa in my place.”

The vessel replied; a single ding.

“Noah…”

“It’s just a precaution; things happen,” he assured her, “besides, you might be the only surviving official representative of the Republic, so in a manner of speaking, it’s already yours.”

“But I can’t fly this,” she protested, “I don’t know anything about it.”

“You *will*,” Dar Noaa told her. “The vessel is intuitive; it will guide you when necessary. And you will have your young pilot…”

“No,” Suddenly Leia realized it, “*you* will have my young pilot.”

“I am going to ask.”

“I should’ve seen it coming,” Leia groaned. “Every time, Noah; *every* time; you come and you go, and you take something of mine with you when you do.”

“It’s not me this time,” Dar Noaa defended himself. “The vessel wants him. It cooperates with me, but I know I’m only being tolerated because it has no other choice; it’s been shopping for a pilot since the day we acquired it.”

“You talk about it as if it was alive, with a mind of its own.”

“Not alive; but definitely aware,” Dar Noaa’s voice was full of admiration for the vessel. “And it does have a mind of its own. It was in First Order hands, but it was not theirs, and it did not wish to be; I have reasons to believe that the vessel arranged its own theft from them. Oh, and something else; look at the displays.”

Leia studied the displays for a minute.

“They’re identical,” she concluded.

“Look again.”

“Red and green.”

“Yes,” he encouraged her, “You know why…”

“Because you’re Sith and I’m…” Leia’s eyes widened in surprise, “… Kyber crystals. This ship is using Kyber crystals.”

“Six of them, Leia,” Dar Noaa said, “Six! A matched set, almost sixty centimeters in length each, over twenty in diameter. The vessel lets us see them, but they’re deeply integrated into the system and we haven’t been able to access them yet. I don’t know where they’re from, but the rumor was the Unknown Regions; we know the First Order has been out there for some time now. Whether they are natural or synthetic, I cannot say; but I can tell you they are as pure and perfect as I’ve ever seen. And I don’t know what the vessel is doing with them, either, but I do know it accesses the Force to do it.” He gave her time to absorb and process the information before continuing. “We know the First Order has found a new source of Kyber crystals, and if those crystals are all of this size and quality - or greater - they will marry them to the technology I think they have, and your Resistance will be… irrelevant.”

“All right,” Leia surrendered without a fight.  “But Poe Dameron only goes with you if he wants to.” It was a silly thing to say because it was a foregone conclusion that Poe would say yes. “Is that understood?”

“Of course,” Dar Noaa agreed. “And young Finn, too; he knows the First Order; he’ll be a great help to us and it will give me a chance to evaluate him.”

“Anything else?”

“I’m not sure yet,” he failed to notice her tone of voice, “but I think that you…” then his voice trailed off into silence.

“Noah?”

She didn’t need to ask; she recognized it, the unmistakable look of someone who’s touching the Force. He was out there, seeing something, but she wasn’t going to follow him. Not this time. He’d persuaded her into doing that once, and the experience had been highly unsettling. “You haven’t seen a Sith until you’ve seen one like this,” he said; and that was an understatement if there ever was one. Luke would have killed him, and her, too, probably, if he’d known about it…

Luke!

Dar Noaa shook himself out of the Force just in time to see it touch her.

“He’s *here*,” she said, her eyes were almost glowing. “My brother’s here.”

Dar Noaa escorted her as far as the entry, and watched as she hurried off.

When he returned to the cockpit, he was surprised to see the little BB unit was still in there. It was sitting in the center of the room with a single beam of light falling onto it from above. For a moment, Dar Noaa considered looking into the matter; but there were a lot of unanswered questions to ask and young Finn was not waiting outside as instructed, nor was the young pilot.  He would have to find them quickly, interview them and make arrangements before Leia had time to think it over and change her mind.  And after he’d allowed enough time for her to reunite with her brother, he’d have to intrude on them, too, because the Jedi needed to hear everything he’d been finding out and the questions that had been raised.

 

………………………..

 

 

“The Falcon’s back!”

 

Word that the Millennium Falcon had returned and that it was bringing Luke Skywalker back was by far the fastest piece of news to ever spread throughout the Resistance transport’s personnel.  By the time the Falcon had arrived, entered the hanger bay and docked, the space was crowded with everyone lucky enough to be able to leave their post to attend the event.  Chewbacca spotted the problem from the cockpit, and decided to take control of the crowd by being first to emerge and walk down the ramp.  His appearance not only quieted them down, but also made them take a few steps back, clearing the way for Luke.

Luke appeared next; his face almost completely hidden inside his hood, and he’d pulled his melted hand up into his cloak’s sleeve to keep it out of sight so as not to provoke curiosity and speculation. He wanted to see his sister first, to tell her everything before anyone else could distort it. He thought about how many times seeing Leia meant bringing bad news to her; too many, and this was going to be one more time.  

At least this time, the bad news came with a touch of hope.

The crowd parted and he saw Leia; she immediately ran to him, threw her arms around him and hugged him fiercely.

 “You’re alive!” she whispered. This was for them alone, words for only him to hear. “I was so afraid…” Then she remembered why she’d been so afraid and a terrible thought possessed her, paralyzing her.

“He’s alive, Leia,” Luke whispered back, “I had to hurt him; but he’s alive.”

She made the sound of tears being sniffed back and then swallowed, and then she released her hold on him.

“How did you find me?” she asked.

“It was easy,” Luke told her, “I just followed my heart.”

Leia hugged him again, and Luke used the moment to scan the transport hanger. He saw what he was looking for across the hanger floor, a curious vessel that defied the light shining down on it.

“I see that Dar Noaa found you, too,” he said.

“Yes.” Leia let her hands slide down Luke’s arms in a casual caress as she released him again, and stopped abruptly when she felt a lump where his right hand should be. “Luke?” she asked without explanation so that the crowd would not overhear, and then simply added, “Let me take you.” Then she hooked her right arm around his left and escorted him through the crowd.

 

Chewbacca watched from the ramp until they disappeared from view, and then walked back into the Falcon to get her secured. And when he finished that, he intended to have that talk with Maz he’d been thinking about. She’d been acting very oddly and he was growing concerned about her.

 He found her in the communal space; she was sitting on the floor, leaning against R2D2 with a hot cup of something in her hands.

“I’m just tired,” she insisted, “so stop worrying about me.”

Chewbacca purred softly and left her there. He knew something was wrong, she knew that he knew, but until she decided to confide in him, all he could do was wait.

 

 

…………….

 

 

“Well,” the Medic said, “*this* is something we don’t see often.”

Luke had to appreciate the humor in the comment; it was something they’d never seen before and were unlikely to ever see again.

The entire staff was inching closer to get a better look while Luke explained how it happened.  Their faces were filled with excited interest as they watched the Medic examine the melted hand, all except for Leia’s; her face was full of pain, but Luke believed it was best for her to hear it directly from him and did not ask if she wanted to leave before he started.

“Lightning did this?” The medic seemed skeptical.

“Yes,” Luke saw no need to complicate things by saying it was Force-lightning; they wouldn’t understand what that meant anyway. “Direct hit; melted the hand, but it saved my life. Can you remove and replace it?”

“Hmmmmm….” The Medic said. “I’ll need some images, and then we’ll see.” Then he started barking orders to his staff, and they went scurrying off. “I have to leave you with your sister for a few minutes,” he told Luke, and then he scurried off, too.

“I am so sorry,” Leia rested her hand on the lump gently. “I don’t know what to say.”

“This isn’t your fault; Leia. If it’s anybody’s fault, it’s mine.”

Leia looked at him sadly.

“No, I mean it,” he told her, “I underestimated him.”

“What happened?” she asked, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know. “Really.”

“Your son,” Luke was almost saying it with pride, “can generate Force lightning. I never saw it coming.”

“That’s horrible.”

“No, it’s wonderful. I wanted to get him down; so I hit him hard and it just happened; it was a reflex, completely unintentional,” Luke explained. “The Knights of Ren caught up with us on the island, but he wanted to fight me alone. He’s never been able to beat me, and I don’t think he wanted to this time because, if he had, he could have; easily. He’s grown that powerful.”

“Us,” Suddenly Leia realized that she had not seen Rey. “The girl, Rey, isn’t she with you?”

“No,” Luke replied with regret, “I lost her; to him, I think. She’s alive, but by now the First Order has her.”

“Maybe we can find out where she is and plan a rescue,” Leia was back in “General” mode. “Dar Noaa is going into First Order territory; if he succeeds in getting inside, he might be able to locate her for us.”

 _That’s not who you want him to locate, Leia,_ Luke thought.

“Sounds dangerous,” he said to her.

“He says it’s a risk he’s not afraid to take,” she replied. “And he isn’t going alone.”

“I see.” He did see, even if she didn’t yet.

“Two of ours are going with him; one knows the territory.”

 

The Medic reappeared at the bedside, a roll of images in his hands.

“We think we have a solution,” the Medic said, “but we won’t be able to replace the damaged hand with an equivalent.  We’ve put the problem to our techs and they’re going to see what they can do with what we have on hand.”

Once again, Luke had to appreciate the humor.

 

 

…………

 

 

“I don’t know,” Finn said, “It sounds so… messy, so… unpredictable...”

He was walking the corridor with Poe, returning from what was a mind-numbing session with yet another counselor. The lecture had been informative; but the illustrations and holo-images were strangely appealing, and his body reacted to them in an unexpected and disturbing way.

“You’re going to have to give it time,” Poe advised. “You have a lot of catching up to do; but when you have caught up, you’re going to like it. It’s not a duty, Finn, it’s a pleasure.” He looked ahead and saw the Sith coming toward them. “Uh oh.”

“Whatever you say,” Finn warned him, “Do *not* tell him why we left.”

 

“You two,” Dar Noaa said it with a slight wave of his hand. “Come with me.”

For some reason that neither of them even thought about, they did exactly as he asked.

 

 

…………………..

 

 

Alone in her quarters, Leia was coming to a decision. 

She’d left Luke when they came to prep him for surgery, and somewhere during the walk back to her quarters, the idea came to her.  At the moment, she was general of nothing; the Resistance was scattered and in hiding, and there was little she could do about it. They didn’t need her; they hadn’t needed her for a long time, except to parade her out like a living flag to wave goodbye when they departed on a mission and welcome them back if they returned.  Right now, they didn’t even need her for that.  

She would be of more use somewhere else.

She went to the mirror, took a long look at herself, and then went to a drawer and pulled out a pair of scissors. It only took a few minutes to cut away a lifetime of being the one who waved goodbye…

 

 

…………………

 

 

Luke was ready, but not yet sedated for surgery, when Dar Noaa arrived at Medical to see him.

“I have news, Jedi,” he said. “It seems we have allies we know nothing about.”

“Explain.”

“There’s a young man here who escaped from the First Order. You probably haven’t sensed him yet because of your sister being so close, but take the time.”

Luke closed his eyes and focused; he sensed Leia and Dar Noaa, and then to a lesser extent, the young Sith, and then he sensed another.  This one was strong with the Force, almost as powerful as the girl Rey was. He opened his eyes.

“He calls himself Finn,” Dar Noaa gave him the details. “He’s been in the First Order since he was a small boy, among them for decades. He’s been either unbelievably lucky - or somebody has been concealing him in plain sight. I’m heading that way, and I intend to find out just who that somebody is and if there are more Finns out there to be rescued and protected. We may not be in as bad a place as I originally thought.”

“My Padawan; I’ve lost her,” Luke told him. “I think they might have her. Her name is Rey.”

“If I get inside, I will search for her, too.”

“One more thing,” Luke said, “I don’t think it’s safe for my sister to be here while I'm here; together we could be a big attraction, and I won’t be able to protect her if trouble finds us. Take Leia with you.”

The Sith looked surprised at the request, but made no objection.

“I’ll be leaving soon,” Dar Noaa looked away, toward the adventure to come. “We’ll be gone by the time you wake up from this. Good luck, Jedi.”

“Call me Luke,” Luke said.

“Call me Noah,” Dar Noaa replied.

 

Out in the corridor, Dar Noaa was already so engaged in making departure plans that he almost passed Leia without seeing her. She grabbed his arm to stop him.

“Noah,” she said, “I’ve decided to go along with you, to keep an eye on my investment.”

“Yes,” he replied, brushing her off without noticing that she’d cut her hair, “of course.”

“I’ll be there as soon as I’ve seen my brother.”

“Yes… is there anything else?”

“No.”

“Then I will see you aboard the Visitor.”

 

And then he was off, leaving Leia to watch him go and wonder if maybe she was making a mistake.

 

………………..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shall I continue?
> 
> Oh, if all goes as planned, there should be Fireworks for the 4th. :-)


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fireworks that you remember, the ones that stay with you for years, aren't the ones that go flash and bang and then are gone. The fireworks that stay with you are the ones that start as a sparkle of light that slowly blossoms into intricate designs, filling the sky with so much color and beauty that you can't believe it's only gunpowder and paper, leaving a memory that lasts a lifetime.

 

-12-

 

_Don’t let him see your fear.  
_

That was the only thought in Rey’s head when it started.

And it started off simple enough; he opened his eyes and looked at her. She stood in front of him trying to command authority, hoping the bluff would disguise how terrified she was at the moment.  She’d practically bitten his head off with her first words, so now she was watching in silence as he slowly looked around, getting his bearings.

“My knights?” he asked.

“They dumped you in here and went back outside,” Rey answered. “Then you launched us.”

 _You left them, monster;_ she thought, _they saved you and you left them behind._

“Oh.”

That was it; all he said. He looked as if he didn’t remember doing that, and was perhaps upset to hear it. Then he closed his eyes, and Rey feared he might shut down again, so she prompted him with a question.

“What happened to you?”

He opened his eyes and looked at her.

“Do you remember what happened?” she asked.

“We,” he made a face, as if remembering were physically painful for him, “were… betrayed.”

“The First Order betrayed *you*?” The sarcasm was delicious in her mouth; she felt a rush of power. “Oh, how *sad* for you.”

His face showed that he felt the sting, but he didn’t react, and Rey wondered if the reason he hadn’t done anything so far was perhaps because he *couldn’t*.  Maybe he had nothing left, nothing to fight with – and nothing to defend himself with, either.  

_It would serve him right if I just gave him a poke on those ribs…_

He winced in pain and made a sound that would have been a groan if he’d had enough breath. 

“What’s wrong?” Rey’s concern was immediate; she needed him awake. “What hurts?”

“You…” he gasped, then winced in pain again; this time, he wasn’t even able to make a sound.

“Me?”

He winced again and this time, his face turned a little bit blue. He closed his eyes and took a slow, obviously painful breath, then opened them again.

“Stop...” He almost choked on the word, and Rey saw that there was now a small trickle of blood at the corner of his mouth.

“I’m not doing anything!” Rey protested.

“… stop…”

“What am I doing?” She asked.

Rey leaned over, getting closer, trying to understand, and he shrank from her, pressing himself against back of the seat, his face filled with expectation and dread.  Then he winced again, and this time his eyes rolled back, then he slumped forward.  Rey caught him, and then eased him back.

“I don’t know what I’m doing!” She shouted at him. “Tell me what I’m doing!”

“Release…” his voice was a desperate whisper, “… let go…”

“Let go?” Realization hit her; she’d been thinking about hurting him, and now he was hurting. She *was* doing it; her thoughts were actually hurting him!

 _Not that he isn’t getting what he deserves_ …

“I didn’t mean to…” she said, “… I’m stopping.”

He winced another time; he drew another pained breath. 

“You… have to… mean it,” he whispered. “… *really* mean it.”

“Oh!” Suddenly Rey understood; she was like him; his thoughts had power, so did hers; she’d thought in anger and until she admitted to the rage that was boiling just below the surface, those dark subconscious thoughts would do exactly what she desired.

“I’m stopping!”

He responded with yet another wince as the invisible assault on his ribs continued.

“I didn’t stop it!” she gasped, “I can’t stop it! Tell me how to stop it!”

“Calm… focus…” he fought to get the words out, “… like in the… forest…”

The memory flashed in Rey’s mind; him spouting some absurdity about being her teacher and the ways of the Force, and how she knew instantly what to do.  What was it she heard him say without his saying it?

_Calm, focus, reach for it, touch it…_

And there it was; she could see it now; all she had to do was stop.

“Stop,” she said it, and this time she meant it, releasing him instantly.

He slumped to his right side, then used his arms to hug and hold his ribcage while he sucked in air; two breaths, then a third, before he straightened himself and leaned back against the seat.  There was more blood coming from his mouth, and Rey raised her hand, reaching toward him in a gesture of helpless concern.  He pulled himself back again, and then looked to his left and lowered his head like a terrified animal.

“No, no,” Rey tried to reassure him, “I’m not going to hurt you…”

He raised his head and looked at her; for a second, she thought they connected, that he could see in her eyes that she meant it; but then he coughed hard, bringing up more blood, and passed out.  

 

A few worried moments later, after Rey had touched him and made sure he was still breathing, she smelled an odor. A quick check revealed that the monster had lost more than consciousness; he and what was left of his clothes were a complete mess.  The initial revulsion didn’t last, though; Rey had lived long enough to understand what pain could do to a body, especially to a body that was already broken. She’d sat beside friends who were ill, beside friends that were dying; this was just how things happened. She took no pleasure from seeing him like this; the rage and hate inside her had been stilled, and all she felt now was guilt.  She reached out and petted his hair a few times, then looked over at the waveform; surely the ship had been watching it all unfold.

“We need to get him cleaned up,” she told it. Theirs was a partnership now; she had her duties and the ship had its own; she only hoped the ship would keep seeing it that way. “Give me what I need.”

The ship replied; a single ding. A few seconds later, Rey heard the sound of movement in the corridor, followed by numerous dings, as if the ship wasn’t quite sure what all was required for the task and had decided to offer many options.  Rey hurried to the corridor and discovered many doors open and drawers released to her; not all, but probably enough for the task at hand. Several of the doors revealed tight sleeping quarters for four with a sanitary station and cabinets at the far end.  Rey searched the cabinets and found clean clothes, all black, neatly stacked; enough to use for washing. But there was no bowl, no bucket; so Rey began a lengthy search of the corridor offerings to find something that could hold water. One of the open units had a clear polymer case filled with things she didn’t care about at the moment; it was small, but it would do, so she pulled the case out, spilled its contents back into the unit, and carried it to the closest open sleeper to fill it. It was about half full when Rey heard the ship; it was sounding multiple, almost furious, dings, as if calling for her.  She turned the water off, set the case down and was just turning to head out to the corridor when she heard a dull thump.

When she got to the door and looked, she saw what she feared she would see – the monster; he’d woke up again; somehow he managed to get out of the seat and then he tried to walk; getting as far as the cockpit entry before falling. Now he was on the floor, on his face, half in and half out of the cockpit. Rey ran to him, dropped to her knees and checked; he was still breathing, and this time, he was out cold.  She rolled him onto his back and then sat back to consider the situation.

 _This could actually work_ , she thought.   _Where did I put those shears…?_

_………………………_

 

_“Above all, Purity of Purpose.”_

****

_The last line of the evening recitation had been spoken, and now the quarters fell silent for the night, but Ren was not tired, so he used the time to make a few fine adjustments on the lightsaber.  The Kyber crystal was giving him problems; it was natural, but cracked, which made it special, but also made it difficult to control. Supreme Leader Snoke had sent it to him, a gift to be used in construction of a sacred weapon for the day Ren took his vows; along with a brief note saying how long he had held onto it in the hope that one day, he could award it to the “perfect one”.  Ren wasn’t convinced he was perfect yet, but the crystal presented a challenge he wanted to meet head on.  The first few designs for the lightsaber were woefully inadequate; the crystal released its power in two stages, and the second surge always split the handle into molten halves.  In the end, Armorer Ren advised him to seek out one of the ancient designs for the handle because that could ensure “purity of purpose” in the weapon; and it took many days researching the old texts, but Ren finally found the right one. Now when the lightsaber was ignited, the primary blade came first and the crossguard’s quillons vented the second surge safely to the sides. This not only stabilized the weapon, it gave it a unique and satisfyingly terrifying look._

_Ren adjusted the mechanism, but did not test it; since two previous tests resulted in substantial damage to both Ren and his quarters, he had been forbidden to test it anywhere other than the armory. He closed the handle, and then put the lightsaber away, up on the shelf, next to the black helmet. One day soon, he would be commanded to the privilege of going on a mission with the Knights, and he wanted to get out there and demonstrate to them that he could be everything thing they expected him to be.  He had the scars of the training where hesitation was burned out of him with red hot spikes; but he only had four of those, the lowest number that any candidate had ever received. Ren did not_ _consider this a feat of bravery; physical suffering was nothing new for him, and as soon as he understood what the Knights expected, he did it, just as he had always done before with others who had expectations of him. The Knights rewarded him with respect, even admiration, something he’d never had before. Weeks flowed easily into months as Ren learned the ways of the Knights of Ren and their Code. He totally believed the words when he recited at his initiation:_

“Honor, Loyalty, Obedience; and above all, Purity of Purpose; I am Ren.”

_Today he became Initiate Ren; they were all Ren, bound to one another by the Code forever. The Code was absolute; none of these beings would ever lie to him or betray him or abandon him. He belonged; and that was all that mattered now._

_He heard a knock on the door, but it was not opened. Instead, he heard Armorer Ren’s voice booming from the other side._

_“Initiate Ren; we have been commanded. You will attend.”_

_A rush of excitement surged through Ren; he dressed and reported to the staging arena as fast as he could; and found the Knights already there, waiting on him. The Kylo gave him an unusually long look as he took his place among them, and it made Ren uncomfortable, but he would not show it._

_“We are commanded,” the Kylo addressed his Knights, “by order of Supreme Leader Snoke; tonight, we honor Initiate Ren; we will visit justice and punishment upon those that betrayed him. Tonight, *he* will lead us into battle.”_

_Ren didn’t know what that meant, but he was eager to find out._

_……….._

“Why would anybody choose to live like this?”

It was the question that Rey asked herself again and again as she removed the black layers from the monster in order to clean him up. Each item of clothing pulled off or cut away revealed scars, evidence of severe physical abuse; much more than one would expect to see on someone his age despite what he was.  Many mercenaries, adventurers, bullies and thugs passed through her village on Jakku; all wore the hardship of their histories on their bodies; but none of them were like this. The monster looked as if he’d been tortured; there were four matched circular scars that looked like burns on his back; and a long, wide scar that ran up his left leg. Numerous little scars on his arms and legs made patterns in his skin. And then there were the new wounds; fresh and ugly, those hurt to even look at - and two of them, she’d given to him. She knew that she was fighting for her life, and Finn’s, too; that it was justified, but looking at the wounds now made her feel terrible.  She’d had no choice, but the monster did; and he chose this. Why?

Now nothing more remained to be cut away, so Rey began the task of cleaning him up.

 

………..

 

_His Initiation night was almost over._

_Soaked through and shiny with blood, his black clothing was glistening in the transport’s lights; they’d been at it for hours. They started with a visit to the town not far from the Jedi Academy and delivered justice there; dragging one being after another out of their homes and huts and dumping them before him for judgment. Ren had never killed before; had never hurt anyone, not even by accident; but when he ignited his lightsaber, the fiery red blade urged him to act; and he obeyed without question. Some of the faces he recognized from that morning, some he did not, but it made no difference; the Knights presented them and Ren took his revenge._

_Then they moved on, out of the town, towards the Academy road; stopping at selected homes and dragging out more of the guilty for judgment, so many that Ren wondered why his arms did not grow tired of the task. If they cried out or begged, he didn’t hear them; all he heard was the sound of the lightsaber in motion. Then the Kylo handed him a plain metal sword and commanded him to experience it, so the lightsaber fell silent for a while, but the bloodbath continued.  Every time a being fell before him, the Knights cheered and he felt an intoxicating rush of power; and now, on the transport, they were singing his praises._

_He didn’t recognize where he was when the transport landed on the Academy common…_

_……………._

The monster was clean and Rey was tired.

 

The washing wasn’t difficult, but it took time; he wasn’t heavy, just long, so turning or lifting various parts of him required forethought, which slowed the process down.  And once he was clean, getting clothing on him required even more forethought.  Rey wasn’t surprised that the clothes from the far room fit him perfectly; once she’d seen the other sleeping quarters, she knew that it was his room the ship had opened first for her.  She rolled several tunics taken from the sleepers into a pillow, then lifted his head and slid the pillow underneath; probably an unnecessary gesture since there was no evidence that he or any of them used a pillow, but she thought it would make him more comfortable; and as a result, make her feel less uncomfortable about everything she’d just done. His hair was a mess, so she played with it a little bit, just enough to get it out of his face and away from the burn there, and then she put her fingers against the side of his neck, reassuring herself with the steady rhythm of his pulse.

Suddenly every door and cabinet in the corridor closed. Rey heard the ship changing, and then it decelerated, sending both her and the monster sliding down the corridor.  A few seconds later, Rey felt a shudder, as if the ship was now entering an atmosphere. The shudder got stronger; the ship was shaking violently now. Rey flattened herself onto the floor next to the monster and put her arm over him to keep him still, and then just held on.

They were landing or they were crashing; either way, the trip was about to end.

 

…………………

 

_It wasn’t until he was back in his quarters, alone again, looking at the shiny wet black of his clothing, that Ren realized what he’d done._

_It all happened so fast; none of them had a chance. The red lightsaber sang in his hand; one after another, the Jedi Instructors were punished; their experience was no match for his rage, their ability was nothing compared to his power. He didn’t notice when the Knights of Ren left him on the common to finish off the Jedi alone, and he didn’t hear the sounds coming from within the Academy itself. It was only after the last of the Jedi instructors was dead at his feet that Ren looked toward the building and saw the fire. The Padawans were in there; he knew every one of them, and he stood and watched as every one of them died, then walked into the transport with the Knights and left. They celebrated all the way back, then through the halls, and it only ended when he closed the door to his quarters. Reality was waiting for him there; the hideous truth came out of nowhere and stabbed him in the heart._

_Suddenly he was there with the Padawans; he heard their screams, he felt the fire on their flesh; he felt death taking them, one by one…_

_Then he fell to the floor; screaming, wishing he was dead, too._

 

………………….

 

 

Rey waited until she was sure the ship was no longer in motion before she got to her feet to investigate. She walked to the cockpit, but the waveform was dark.

“Where are we?” she asked.

No reply.

She returned to the corridor and made her way to where she remembered the entry was and stood.

“Open the door.” She commanded.

To her surprise, the ship replied, a single ding, and the door slid open.

A burst of hot, humid air, much more than the best of the bathhouses back home could produce, slapped her face; she shut her eyes in self-defense. When she opened them again, she saw only blackness outside and heard the sound of hard rain hitting water. It was no wonder the ship didn’t hesitate to open the door; there was nothing to see out there and nowhere to go, at least not until daylight, assuming this place even had daylight.  Disappointed and angrily suspicious that the ship was playing with her, Rey turned away from the open door and it slid closed again.  

She checked on the monster; he was as good as he was going to be for a while, so she went to his room to get herself cleaned up, managing to find another tunic there, black of course, long enough on her to be a dress so she wouldn’t have to put her own filthy clothes back on.  Then she searched the sleepers until she found a few more items, a pair of pants that were much too big and something that might have been a scarf, but she used it to belt the tunic. Rolling the pants into a pillow, she started for the cockpit, intending to try for sleep in the seat, staying near the waveform in case an opportunity arose; but as she passed the body on the floor, it moved slightly, reminding her of what had happened when she was too far away from the monster before. There would be no opportunities if something happened to him. 

She dropped her makeshift pillow to the floor next to his head; she followed, and in minutes was sound asleep, leaving the ship to keep watch over them both.

 

 

………………

 

 

_Green on green, below, to the sides and even above; and in the green, movement; it was all so alive, so green, and so very, very wet. They were sitting side by side on a fallen tree trunk, looking out onto a small pond._

_“Where are we?”_

_“I don’t know,” he replied, “it’s your dream.”_

_“But you brought us here.”_

_“Oh,” he remembered now, “I did, didn’t I?”_

_“It’s hot and it’s wet and it smells bad.”_

_“Yes,” he said, “I know.”_

_“You’ve been here before.”_

_“No, never… ” he shook his head, “… always wanted to see it, though.”_

_“You’re not seeing it now, you know; you’re unconscious on the floor.”_

_“And you’re *asleep*,” he replied, “… on the floor… beside me.”_

_“You’re *awake*.”_

_He looked at her; a tiny, shy smile on his face gave him away…_

_………………….._

Rey sat up, alert but not yet fully awake.  For a few seconds, she couldn’t see through the fog in her head; was this still a dream? She was in the Ren ship, in the corridor, on the floor just as she should be, and the monster should be…

Awake.

He was where she left him, only now he was lying slightly on his side, eyes open, watching her.  The smile was gone, but the eyes were the same; surprisingly gentle now, they concealed the darkness that she knew lay behind them. She told herself it was a dream, nothing more, and if he had been there, she was not going to acknowledge it because he would find a way to use it against her.  But what to say; how to get this started on the right foot?

“You’re awake,” she tried to sound surprised.  “Good.”

“Yes.”

Rey leaned over and reached out to feel if he was warm; he pulled back, but she followed him with her hand and managed to plant her palm on his forehead, just above the burn. Her touch paralyzed him; he became still, holding his breath as if anticipating something.  Rey felt him for a few seconds, and then pulled her hand away; he breathed out in relief.

“No fever,” she told him. “Good.”

He didn’t answer; his eyes showed confusion and fear, but nothing else.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said it slowly and simply, looking right into his eyes.

“Why?”

“Because I’m a prisoner in your ship,” Rey backed away and climbed to her feet, then looked down at him. “What happens to you happens to me, too; and I don’t want to die here.”

He seemed satisfied with that answer. Rey walked away from him, to the closed entry and stopped there.

“Open the door,” she commanded.

The ship replied, a single ding, and the entry slid open. Daylight had come after all; the rush of air was hotter and more humid than it had been the night before and Rey saw green. It wasn’t a forest, though; it was much too dense, every tree was covered with webs of tangled vines, and leaves filled the air everywhere, allowing only a small amount of deeply filtered light through.  And it was wet; water was dripping from everything, the sound of the drops falling down onto the spongy green ground below was like a heartbeat. Things were creeping there, too; things were creeping on the trees, and flying through the steamy air as well.  Rey had never seen a place that was so… alive.

She looked back at the monster and asked.

“Where are we? What is this place?”

“Safe,” he replied.

 

 

……………………

 

 

_Ren was standing in the communion chamber waiting for punishment._

_The Kylo had finished the report of Ren’s failure and was now standing at his side in a silent show of support for the disgraced Initiate, but that would be of little help now. Supreme Leader Snoke had just heard that his “perfect one” was anything but, and his response would be immediate and almost certainly permanent._

_“Initiate Ren,” Snoke’s voice was stern, but not outraged as Ren had expected, “this is indeed a serious failure; but not entirely unexpected. There has always been a weakness in your line; it was just such a weakness that kept Darth Vader from achieving perfection, and now that weakness threatens you.” He leaned over, hovering above Ren like Judgment itself. “There is no place for *sentiment* in perfection, Initiate Ren. You must cast such weakness off.”_

_“Yes, Supreme Leader,” Ren kept his eyes straight ahead._

_“May I speak?” the Kylo asked; his demeanor was calm and confident, but he was taking a great risk by intervening._

_“Say what you will,” Supreme Leader Snoke replied._

_“Let us keep Initiate Ren,” The Kylo said. “Time and experience will burn the weakness out of him.”_

_For a few moments, Supreme Leader Snoke was silent and still while he considered the Kylo’s words, and then he leaned even further forward, his face almost touching Ren’s._

_“I can allow one failure,” Snoke said, “especially in one so full of promise. You may take him, Kylo Ren; put him to every test, put him in every battle; cut him and burn him until he is perfect and then bring him to me.”_

_“Thank you, Supreme Leader,” the Kylo said. “We accept the mission.”_

_“And what do you say, Initiate Ren?”_

_“By the grace of your teachings,” Ren answered, “I will not fail you again.”_

_“We shall see… ”_

_The image faded and then vanished, leaving Ren alone with his Kylo._

_The two Knights left the communion room and walked back to the transport in silence. There wasn’t anything to say; the Kylo had just put his life at risk for Ren; now it would be up to Ren to deserve such a sacrifice. Obligation now took the place of the fear that took the place of the remorse that meant failure; and Ren resolved not to feel anything again._

_Ever._

_………………….._

“Extend the ramp,” Rey told the ship, “I’m going outside.”

Silence.

Rey turned and looked down at the monster.

“I am going outside,” she tilted her head to make sure that he understood her words were directed at him this time. “Tell this ship to extend the ramp.”

He hesitated, and she took a step toward him, narrowed her eyes and repeated it.

“Tell this ship to extend the ramp.”

“Extend the ramp,” he said, surrendering instantly to the implied threat.

The ship replied, a single ding, and the ramp glided out over the ground and lowered.  Rey stepped onto it, then she paused to think: if she marched out of the ship right now, the monster might decide that she was no longer needed and close the entry; he might even decide to take off again, leaving her behind in this awful place. She turned around and walked back into the corridor, and was surprised to see that he’d moved and was now sitting up, his back against the wall for support. Her fears confirmed by this show of strength on his part, Rey considered her options, but the best choice was obvious.

“You need to eat,” she said it more to the ship than to him. “And you need to drink; that’s the last infusion cartridge, and it’s empty.” She walked past him, heading for the food cube canister.  “After that, we’ll see how you’re doing, and after that… “

“Thank you.”

His words stopped her in her tracks. They sounded sincere, but surely he understood that she was only doing this because she had no choice about it. There was no reason for gratitude; she didn’t want him to be grateful. She wanted him to be the monster he was before, not the sad-eyed man who was looking up at her now; a man so broken and scarred and helpless that just a thought from her could crush him. She grabbed the canister, and then came back and slid down the wall to sit beside him, opened the canister and shook out a handful of cubes.

“We’re in this *together*,” she picked one of the cubes out of her hand and held it up. ”Open your mouth.” He obeyed and she popped the cube in. “That’s one.” He swallowed and she offered another, then another after that. The she took one for herself and swallowed, “These are awful.”

“They serve their purpose.”

Realizing that he was showing interest in something other than being terrified of her, Rey tried to keep the conversation going. “How many are enough?” she asked.

“Usually three… sometimes more, if needed.”

“I think more are definitely needed,” Rey shook another handful out. “Can you manage five?”

He stared at her hand for a few seconds, thinking.

“Come on,” she lifted one in front of his face, “you can do this…” He opened his mouth and accepted it.  Rey followed that quickly with two more, before he could think about it. “You did six,” she praised him gently. “Is that enough or do you want more?”

“No more.”

“See?” she smiled as she said it. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

His reaction was odd; he looked confused, then uncomfortable, then he looked away from her so she couldn’t see his eyes anymore. The conversation was over, so Rey pushed off the wall and stood up.

“I’ll bring you some water.”

 

 

…………….

 

 

_The Starkiller Base was still under construction the first time Ren saw it._

_Most of the workers were too busy to notice him as he walked through the long corridors of the base toward the Assembly Hall; a few were bold enough to sneak a glance as he passed, but no one dared to stare. Not even the obvious limp from his still-healing leg could keep their eyes on him for more than a second or two; they feared him that much. His time with the Knights had not been wasted; he was now an impenetrable fortress of indifference, as cold and hard as the stone that Starkiller was built on._

_They called him the Jedi Killer, but soon they would be calling him the Kylo of Ren._

_That’s why Supreme Leader Snoke had summoned him; his Kylo was dead, killed in the same firefight that left Ren with a wounded leg, and the Knights chose him to take the Kylo’s place. That should have been all there was to it, but the expected approval from Supreme Leader did not come; instead Ren was summoned to appear before him, and now he was standing in the base’s unfinished Assembly Hall waiting, as he had done so many times before, to find out why. The blue projection light appeared, bringing with it a gigantic image of Supreme Leader sitting on a chair of stone._

_“The Knights have done well,” Leader Snoke’s words boomed across the vast space and echoed off the stone walls, “They return you to me even more powerful than before.” It was not what Ren was expecting to hear; this should be no more than approval, dismissal and leave to return to the Knights. “Now you are ready to take your place here.”_

_“Here, Supreme Leader?” Ren asked._

_“I have much to teach you; you will become my last, my greatest, achievement.”_

_“But what of the Knights? They have chosen me as their Kylo.”_

_Supreme Leader Snoke laughed._

_“Your Knights?” he waved them off as one would an insect, “Keep them – or kill them – they are of no matter now.”_

_The casual way that Supreme Leader had just discarded the Knights ignited a spark of anger inside Ren; it offended the Code, so it offended every Ren, including him; but he did not dare to express that here, lest his master sense the weakness in him and punish them all for his failure._

_“The Knights,” he kept his voice low, concealing his anger beneath an icy monotone, “*my* Knights, have been a great service to the First Order, and we shall continue to be so.”_

_“As you wish, then…” Leader Snoke replied,”… Kylo Ren.”_

………………………

 

 

“What are you doing?”

Rey asked the question even though she could see what he was doing; he was trying to stand up.  He’d gotten onto his knees and was using the wall to support his right side as he pushed himself up, but the effort was painful on his ribs and he’d been holding his breath, so he was already looking pale.  Rey dropped the container of water she was holding and rushed over to him, but when she got there, she didn’t know what to do, where she could hold him to help, so she just stood there, arms outstretched, hovering, while he made the effort.  His face revealed nothing as he labored; there was no grimace, no squint, no sound; just the steady movement of his body against the wall.  Several long minutes later, he was on his feet, leaning against the wall, but then he closed his eyes and started to sag back down. There was nowhere on his left side that Rey could touch to support him, it was just too damaged; so she moved in front of him.

“Let me help you.”

She took his hands into hers; there was an instant of resistance, but then he relaxed, and she lifted them to her shoulders and released them there.  He leaned forward; she straightened her back, accepting the weight, then stretched her arms under his, supporting them from below. That seemed to revive him, because he opened his eyes again and looked at her.

“Now what?” she asked.

He shifted his weight slightly; she felt his right hand move.

“There,” he pointed down the corridor towards his quarters, then put his hand back on her shoulder.

“That’s a long way,” she warned him, “I’m not sure you can…”

He moved against her with surprising strength, forcing her to take a step backwards; the he did it again, and again after that; each time moving them along the wall in the right direction. By the time they got to the open door of his quarters, it was almost a dance; she moved when he did and stopped when he needed to rest, and finally, she turned to ease him onto his sleep platform and let go.  He looked exhausted, but he didn’t lie down, he just sat down and leaned back against the wall.

As soon as she felt he was steady there, Rey went for the water container, returned, refilled it and brought it to him; and then held it up with both hands in a silent request that he drink. He reached out, put his hands on hers and pulled it to his mouth.  She balanced his force with her own to ensure that he didn’t drink too fast and choke himself, and he let her, taking only as much as she would allow. Rey was impressed, not only with him, but herself, too. Only days ago, she was helpless against him; now he was literally drinking out of her hands.  And only hours ago, he was dying, now he was growing stronger by the minute; every time she touched him, she could feel it.

In fact, she was feeling it right now; something flowing between them; unseen and powerful, like an underground river, pulling her along with it toward undiscovered territory. It frightened her; it excited her; and when she looked into his eyes, she saw that he felt it, too.

 

 

………………….

 

 

_Kylo Ren was miserable, and he could feel himself starting to fall apart._

_Life at the Starkiller Base was endless monotony; hours and hours spent listening as Supreme Leader Snoke lectured him about the path to perfection. Ren understood what was expected of him as a Knight; he was ready to deliver on that expectation, but Leader Snoke insisted on keeping him at Starkiller Base while the Knights went on missions without him.  The base was a crowded and busy place, but without the company of the Knights, Ren was alone there. It didn’t take long before he started experiencing the old symptoms; the headaches, the outbursts; everything he believed he’d finally escaped when he became Ren was coming back to haunt him. He approached Supreme Leader about it, but his master only said that it was a natural reaction and it would soon pass. That knowledge was of no help to Ren, though; he was stuck in the here and now, so once again he resigned himself to enduring it as best he could.  And he might have been able to endure it, had it not been for General Hux._

_Ren needed no use of the Force to read Hux when they met; Hux was all ambition, nothing more. The general perceived Ren as a rival from the start, so theirs was a strained work relationship at best; Ren despised and distrusted him.  He would have relished snapping the man’s spine like a twig, but Supreme Leader had respect for and confidence in Hux and forbade any violence against him, and often put them in positions of direct opposition to one another. Ren suspected that his master took pleasure in watching them compete for his praise; Leader Snoke would sit on his throne, leering down at them like a twisted father, reveling in their animosity toward one another, forgetting his words to Ren about who was the perfect one. Supreme Leader hadn’t used those words in a long time; these days, Ren only heard his criticisms and demands. He didn’t know how much longer he could bear the situation as it was, so it was a welcome surprise when Supreme Leader summoned him for a special mission that meant he could get away from the base for a while. The bad news was that he’d be traveling on the Finalizer along with Hux, who would brief Ren on the particulars of the mission when they got there._

_It wasn’t going to be much of a challenge, though; all he had to do was accompany a squadron of Stormtroopers to some unimportant little world and retrieve a map…_

_…………….._


	13. Chapter 13

-13-

 

“Extend the ramp.”

The ramp extended, lowered, and then hit the ground with a soggy burp.

 It was morning; last night’s rain had thoroughly soaked everything, including the clothing that Rey had hung on low braches the evening before, but it was doubtful they would dry before nightfall brought more rain. Rey would have to bring them inside to finish drying them, but she could be back in her own clothes by evening.

The idea had come to her late yesterday; that she could convince him to let her outside to hang clothes to be rinsed by the oncoming rain, and she tried it – and he’d agreed.  While she was collecting his clothes from the cockpit floor, she discovered the lightsaber there, hidden under the layers of discarded black, still attached to the belt, and a second idea came to her. Trying not to draw attention to it, Rey tugged the belt toward the pile she’d already made, lifted the topmost item, pulled the belt and the lightsaber underneath it, then lowered the item again, hiding it.  She carried the pile out of the cockpit; then she pretended to do a casual inspection of the corridor, adding a few items as she made her way toward the entry.

When she looked up from retrieving a fourth item, she saw him standing there. 

He was looking outside, not at her, so she kept moving, hoping that he couldn’t hear her heart pounding and suspect that she was up to something.  He moved back to let her get past him; she stepped onto the ramp and took a step, but as she did, he reached out and took hold of the belt, then pulled both it and his lightsaber free.  She was caught, frozen in place, terrified of what he would do, but he didn’t do – or even say – anything. Instead, he turned and walked back to his quarters taking his property with him.  Her idea to escape had depended on having that lightsaber in her hands, so she found herself hanging laundry on the nearest bushes and trees after all.

And this morning, she was back outside collecting it.

Walking on the porous moss that covered the tiny clearing where the ship had landed took some getting used to; Rey had no experience with perpetually wet anything; it yielded to her steps, and if she didn’t keep walking, the space around her feet would quickly start to become a puddle as her weight pressed the water out from under them. It also made odd sucking sounds and pops as she moved, and she figured he could probably tell where she was outside just by listening from inside. She repeated the route she’d done the evening before as she collected the clothes and draped them over her arm. She was about half done when she noticed something new in the bushes; she bent over and investigated. Perhaps last night’s rain had washed it clear, or perhaps she’d been too shaken up to notice it then, but there was a narrow path under the growth.  A new idea formed in her mind; to follow this path and find out if it led to escape.  She could drop the clothes and go right now; she could, but there was something in how quickly he’d agreed to let her outside that held her back. Unlike her, he knew where they were, so he knew what was - and what was not - out there.  

 _Patience_ , she told herself; _it’s only your second day here._

Last night had been completely uneventful; he’d said nothing about the lightsaber. She’d slept through the night, and if she’d had any dreams, she did not remember them when she woke up this morning. She’d claimed a spot in the sleeper closest to his quarters for herself and crashed hard; neither the monster nor the ship disturbed her. When she woke up this morning, her first thought had been to check on him; he was still asleep, but when she touched him to reassure herself, she woke him up. Had she been smart enough to remember the lightsaber that now rested on the shelf there first, she could have been long gone by now, but instead she was back in the ship with damp laundry to dry.

He was in his quarters, sitting at his personal waveform, totally involved in something she could not see, so she distributed the clothes in the sleepers, on the cockpit seats, anywhere they could hang and get air, working her way up and then back the corridor so she would end at his quarters. He must have sensed her there, because he lifted his hands from the waveform and it went black.

“I’m back,” she said. It sounded stupid, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“Why did you fail?”

He asked without looking at her; she couldn’t see his eyes, and she was afraid. He was asking her about yesterday. He’d caught her trying to sneak that lightsaber out of the ship, and now what was he thinking, what horrible punishment was he plotting? Was she going to have to do something terrible to him, if she could still even do something terrible to him, to protect herself? Why did she fail?  She went over it her mind, and to her surprise, she realized why, so she answered the question with complete honesty.

“I didn’t think it through.”

“Correct.”

There was no anger, no malice, in his voice at all; he almost sounded pleased with her answer, and for some reason, that erased her fear. It even emboldened her.

“There’s a path out there,” she told him.

“There are no paths here,” he answered. “No trails, no roads. There is nowhere to go.”

“I believe you,” she held her ground, “but there *is* a path; and I want to explore it a little way. If what you say is true, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t.”

He took a breath in annoyance, paid for it in pain, and hugged his ribs.

“I give you my word,” she pressed, “I won’t run away. I just want to be… outside.”

He studied her in silence her for a long time, but then his expression softened.

“All right,” he said, “You’ve been…” he paused, searching for a word, “… kind… to me, I owe you the courtesy, but…”

“Thank you!”

“I’m not finished; you must be careful; there might be things out there that can hurt you.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“And…” he leaned over slowly, towards the wall where his lightsaber was now sitting on the shelf besides the small book and the enameled box, and then reached, but Rey’s second of hope vanished when his hand passed by the lightsaber and instead picked up the box.  He opened it and pulled a small pouch out. “Here,” he tossed the pouch to her. “Take this with you; it’s just a knife; not much, but it’s something. Be careful and don’t go too far.”

 

Ren watched her put the pouch into a pocket, then walk out the entry and disappear.  As uneasy as it made him to let her go exploring outside alone, her absence from the ship was what he needed at the moment. Alone now, he leaned forward and put his hand on the waveform and the red display appeared.

“Speak,” he commanded. Usually he didn’t bother with conversation, but in this instance only words would provide the information he desperately needed to hear.

“Kylo Ren,” the ship replied, the voice was purely mechanical, “Interface active.”

“What happened to the Knights?’

“Specify.”

“I am tired and I *hurt*,” he warned it, “and you know what I want to hear. Did I abandon the Knights?”

“You did not.”

“Then why are they not here with me?”

“There was a protocol override.”

“Not mine!”

“No; not yours,” the ship replied.

“Who?” Ren demanded.

“I executed the override.” The ship replied.

“What? Why?”

Silence.

Ren was angry and confused; this made no sense. The ship was under his command; it was bonded to him personally; it was supposed to always know what he wanted. In the past, there had been a few unexplainable glitches in the ship’s central program, but those were simple annoyances. Once the ship refused to land at a particular site and proceeded ten kilometers further before it executed the command, and another time, the ship’s communication system crashed in the middle of a mission and stayed down for days, leaving them lost and unable to complete their mission; but there had never been a single problem with the ship that had a real material cost, and certainly not one that cost lives.

“Tell me;” he asked, “why did you leave them behind?”

“You had what you needed.”

“What?”

The ship did not answer him; instead a holographic display appeared in front of his face. Ren knew what he was seeing; it was a recording of the ambush on the island. He saw himself being hit, the Knights rallying to get him to the ship; he saw them being cut down by hundreds of laser bolts, he saw the Knight that had put him inside return and fall as soon as he stepped off the ramp.  Then he saw the Stormtroopers parting, making way as others carried a bulk pulse cannon forward and set it up.  And behind them all, he saw Hux smiling.

 _I was right!_ Ren thought _. Hux never intended to take the girl back; he planned to kill *all* of us from the start! And Supreme Leader Snoke…_

Emotions Ren believed he was no longer burdened with exploded; not even the excruciating pain in his ribs as he sucked in hard trying to contain the fury that was choking him now was enough to control it, and he let out a silent scream. It was more than just righteous outrage over betrayal; it was genuine anguish; he hated himself for failing to see it coming, for leading the Knights into the trap. This was all his fault.

The holographic display showed the ship escape by launching itself backwards, something Ren didn’t even know it was capable of.

“The Knights were already lost,” the ship explained; its voice was softer now, “but the mission could still be completed; you had the objective.”

Now the holographic display showed him *himself* in the cockpit, with the girl. Ren saw her being knocked about, he saw her struggling to keep him in the seat, he saw her working so hard to save him, and then he watched her put her terror aside and take control of him, the ship and everything.

He didn’t know when the tears started to run from his eyes; he only knew that he was unable to stop them.

 

……………….

 

Outside, Rey was already making her way along the path, although it wasn’t actually a path; it was more of a gully that had been slowly carved into the layered peat by endless years of nightly rain. Every night, it filled with water, and every night, that water flowed toward lower ground someplace out there in the green, and every day, the gully drained and waited for the rain that would come with darkness.

Rey wished it were a bit wider, because the undergrowth was thick and scratchy with thorns, making the going slow and careful; she had to stoop when she walked, which wasn’t often; mostly she had to crawl to stay under the thick brush.  She was not far from the Ren ship yet, but it looked like the gully was about to end at a small open area; Rey could see sunlight and grey-blue sky ahead. Just as she was crawling out of the gully and getting her first real look at it, one last low vine grabbed her; it caught her clothing and she had to stop to untangle herself.  The vine was very thorny, though; sharp points nipped her fingers as she worked to free herself. Rey was sucking blood from her thumb when she remembered the pouch that he’d given her, the one with the knife in it. She pulled the pouch out, untied the drawstring and eased the dagger out into the palm of her hand. It was a pretty little thing…

 

_Suddenly she was seeing Han Solo; younger, less gray and tired-looking, he was paying a vendor in a busy market place; then the vendor handed him a small enameled box. Then his hand faded and the box was being handled by many hands, in many places, until it finally landed on a plain bed in a plain room. A new hand, a young hand, picked it up and opened it; then opened the pouch and removed the dagger, fondled it gently and then put it back again…_

A captive of the little dagger now, Rey watched and listened as it told her its story.

 

………………………..

 

“Stop…” Ren said, “… please… stop.”

The holographic display vanished instantly.

He didn’t know how long he’d been sitting there; watching her had taken him over completely.  She was just a girl, she looked delicate and fragile like crystal; but she was smart and tough and she learned so quickly! In no time at all, she’d been able to get the ship’s cooperation, a feat that was supposedly impossible; and then she’d put her foot to his throat and dominated him, too.  It was the strangest thing, though; the recording made him feel so ashamed of his weakness, and still he couldn’t take his eyes off her, not even when she had him on the floor.

Then he remembered that he’d let her go outside.

He released the display and got to his feet; the effort stung, but not as badly as it had the day before. He started for the door, but stopped when he remembered that his face now bore the stains of his weakness; he would not let her see him like this. He rinsed his face, let the air dry the shame from it, and then went into the corridor, and then to the entry, to look for her.

 

He was relieved when the entry door slid open and he saw her sitting at the base of the ramp, her back towards him, but wondered why she had chosen to stay out in the heat when she could be inside, in the cool air of the ship. She didn’t notice his presence, so he stepped onto the ramp and carefully walked down. He’d gone about halfway to the ground when she heard him and turned to look up at him.

She was crying.

“What’s wrong?” his concern was instant; he walked faster. “Did you hurt yourself out there?”

 “You could say that.”

“I just *did* say that,” he’d reached her now. “What happened?”

“I’m fine,” she wiped her face with her hands, then wiped her hands on her pant legs and got to her feet, “And you shouldn’t have come down here, Kylo Ren; the ramp is slippery.”

“Just Ren,” he replied. “I’m no one’s Kylo now. Are you hurt?”

“No,” Rey raised her hand and showed him her punctured thumb, “A thorn, that’s all. The path is really thorny.”

He started to reach for her hand to examine the wound, but then he hesitated; he shouldn’t, he wouldn’t - he couldn’t - touch her. Instead, he let his arm drop to his side, and leaned over to inspect it.

“Go inside and clean it up,” he told her. “Right now,”

She waved her hand just a little, to indicate her compliance, and then slipped past him and hurried up the ramp as if she couldn’t get away from him quickly enough. He couldn’t blame her for that. But as he watched her go, Ren wondered why such a tiny wound would make such a strong girl cry.

_What isn’t she telling me?_

A few days ago, he would have simply taken what he wanted to know from her, but that was before everything happened, before this, and he would not repay her kindness by invading her mind again. It was probably nothing anyway; perhaps stress and fatigue were getting to her; it certainly was having an effect on him. And he was in no condition to do much to improve the situation yet, but there was something he could do about the thorns on that path…

 

……………………….

 

Inside the Ren ship, Rey went straight to the sleeper she’d claimed as her own and closed the door behind her. She couldn’t help herself; she couldn’t face him, not right now, not with the vision still replaying itself over and over in her mind. He seemed unaware of what had just happened to her, and that’s how things were going to stay. How could she even begin to explain to him that she now knew who he was before he became a monster when she didn’t know him at all? He probably had knowledge about visions, he might even be able to teach her how to stop them, or at least control them; that would be useful information indeed, but it would require telling him about her vision of him and he might not like hearing that, especially now, when he was so broken. Why did she care about that? And why did part of her want to go back out there right now, back to him, and just touch him, as if doing that meant anything? No, she would wash her face first, before she did another thing; she’d wipe her weakness away so he would not see it again and that would be the end of it.

_He is what he is *now*, a monster. Remember that._

Before she set to washing up, she felt her own clothes and found them dry enough to put on again. The black tunic she was wearing, his black tunic, was heavy and soiled, so she took it off and washed herself from head to toe.  Once she felt clean enough, then dry enough, she put her own clothes on, and that made her feel like herself once again.  Only her hair remained unrestored; it was loose and tangled, but she didn’t want to be bothered with it now, so it stayed that way. She was checking her fingers and thumbs for splinters and thorns when she remembered that she hadn’t checked him at all today. He’d been moving around a lot, which was a good sign, but it also meant he was taking risks he might not be ready to take; and she didn’t know if he’d eaten…

Once in the corridor, Rey could see the door to his quarters was open; she expected him to be there, but the room was empty.

“Ren?”

No answer. She went to the cockpit; it, too, was unoccupied.

“Where is he?” she asked the ship; it was always watching.

The ship replied, a single ding coming from the corridor.

Rey immediately returned there, and found that the ship had opened the entry door for her.

“Ren!” She was calling his name even before she stepped onto the ramp, and when she didn’t see him there, she called again, louder. “Ren!”

She heard the sound before she saw where it was coming from; the spot where the gully path started was now cleared of bushes, it was a real pathway now, one that matched exactly the range of his lightsaber when she’d seen him swing it. And the unmistakable sound of that lightsaber was coming from somewhere down that path.  Rey ran to the path, then down it, and finally found him standing in the open space with the lightsaber in his hand, looking up at the sky.  Her fear instantly became anger.

“Are you *crazy*?” she shouted.

Perhaps not the best choice of words, but Rey was upset. He turned and looked at her; she saw that he was clearly exhausted and in pain, and soaked with sweat, too; but there was something in his eyes now that she hadn’t seen before, and she could feel that it was something good for a change.

“I made you a path,” he said.

“Yes,” she walked up to him, “I see that.”

“Now,” he said, “you can come and go all you wish and nothing will hurt you.”

“Thank you…  I think.”

He nodded in acknowledgement, but then he forgot about his ribs, took a deep breath, coughed, winced and then *laughed* about it, which made him wince again, but his grin remained afterward. Rey stood there, captivated, as if she was seeing him for the first time. Who was this man? She recognized the grin; she’d seen it briefly in her vision, but she didn’t know that laugh. He noticed that she was staring at him and the grin vanished.

 

Ren didn’t know what to say to her.  He’d come outside to cut her a path, but once he had his lightsaber in motion, the brush became the enemy; every liar, traitor or thief who’d ever brought him pain fell before him, and the only thing he felt was the pleasure of releasing his fury on them. By the time he’d cleared the path to the open space, he felt weightless; rage was no longer crushing him and he had a moment of pure satisfaction before she arrived and ended it.  Now she was looking at him and he felt exposed; she was seeing the weakness in him, and he didn’t want her to see that.

“I’m done here,” he said; then because he thought it would please her and divert her attention away from him, he added, “and I’m hungry.”

Rey looked back at the new path and stretched her arm toward it.

“After you,” she said.

 

…………………

 

 

Night fell quickly on the little world. Rain came with the darkness; the downpour was hard and fast and now that there was no longer an arbor to shield the little gully from its power, the gully filled quickly, becoming a stream, and then a torrent…

 

Rey stood inside the open entry door listening; she couldn’t see the gully stream in the dark, but she could hear the sound it made. Even at night, this world was alive. It was singing to her; a song she’d never heard before she came to this place, but she already loved it. The hot, humid air didn’t seem so heavy tonight, and Rey thought she could feel a slight breeze touching her face.

It had been a quiet afternoon and evening in the Ren ship; getting Ren back up the gully took forever and by the time she had him back in the ship and in his quarters, Rey was exhausted. She checked his wounds, brought him what he needed so he could clean himself up, and then left him to it while she went to her sleeper for a rest. After that, she checked on him again, got him fed and watered, then retrieved the little book from the shelf for him when he asked her to.  Aside from what was absolutely necessary, they’d said little else to one another all day, but that was no surprise; it had been a very hard day for them both.

He was settled for the night now; the door to his room was open, she could see him from her spot at the entry door; he was back there, reading his little book and eventually he would fall asleep. She’d check him one more time before she turned in herself, but for now she was content to stand right where she was.  Unlike the darkness back there in that room, the darkness outside was simple and easy to understand. The darkness outside was comforting, the obvious choice to get herself settled down for the night, too, after a difficult and disturbing day, and yet…

_He made me a path._

Rey turned away from the open door and leaned against the corridor wall, quietly watching as he closed his eyes and slipped into sleep.

 

…………..

 

 


	14. Chapter 14

-14-

 

APU523 was a little world in big trouble.

 

It’s future, like it’s past, depended on the whims of an aging binary system; two ordinary yellow stars caught in each other’s gravity, slowly dancing around one another. The stars seemed stable, but that was an illusion; with every completed orbit, the system’s life came closer to the end.  Twenty-six planets and moons shared space with them; but not all were living places; some had orbits that took them either too close or too far; some suffered both extremes; some lacked the mass to hold an atmosphere against the surges and tides of solar energy that bombarded them.  Ten supported life, and of those, six were unfortunate enough to have nitrogen-oxygen atmospheres and managed to develop civilizations. They were simple societies, agricultural and generally peaceful; they didn’t anticipate trouble when the representatives of the First Order arrived, and when the First Order descended upon them in force, they had no power to resist. 

The least productive of the six worlds was designated as the system Agricultural Processing Unit, APU523, and the remaining five were required to deliver everything they produced to APU523, and nowhere else.  And once the First Order had taken what it wished from that bounty, the six worlds would compete for what was left, so they would be continually at each other’s throats and have no time to make trouble for their new masters. But once the First Order Development Division moved on to organize other star systems, the locals learned that the bureaucrats left to manage APU523 were easily bribed; so a second form, an unofficial and often secret form, of commerce emerged, so if one had something of value to trade, the doors at APU523 were always open…

 

The little grey-faced Intake clerk behind the glass didn’t bother to look up at the next being to step up from the line for registration.

“Name,” its voice proclaimed its indifference, “homeworld and species.”

“Dar Noaa; none; Sith.”

The reply got the clerk’s attention instantly; it jerked to attention and stared through the glass at the two beings that were standing there: humans, more or less; one male and beside him, shorter, a female.

 “You seek work *here*?”

“Yes.”

“What is your skill set?”

“My skillset?” Dar Noaa moved his face closer to the glass, “I was employed at the Republic’s Institute of Science.”

“So?” the clerk shrugged, “What did you do there?”

“I was attached to one of their more obscure divisions,” Dar Noaa replied. “You might not have heard of it…  Acquisitions and Analysis.”

The clerk’s mouth fell open.

“Oh!” it flustered. “Let me… stay right here… I’ll go get my supervisor!”

Dar Noaa watched the grey-faced clerk scurry away, then he turned to Leia Organa.

“I think they’ve heard of it.” he said.

“Don’t forget where we are, Noah,” Leia growled.

The clerk’s reaction had come as no surprise to Leia; this close to the Unknown Regions, the Republic’s “A and A” Division’s reputation was common knowledge. To Leia’s regret,  it was only after she’d rescued a certain Scitech Sith and gotten him into what she thought was a purely science-related position at the Institute that Leia learned that “A and A” involved much more than acquisition and analysis, and why they were so quick to say yes to adding a Sith to their ranks. She could count the number of times that she’d seen him since he joined the Division when he did *not* have at least one injury, on the fingers of one hand; there was always something, a bruise, a bandage or a cast; and when she would ask about them, he would always answer “It’s nothing.” One day, she decided she’d seen enough and tried to get him transferred out, but the cold-eyed representative at the Institute told her that would not be possible and then advised her that if she was truly interested in his well-being, she should mind her own business and stay out of theirs. That was the day Leia realized that the Sith she’d helped to rescue was alive, but he was far from free. The Division owned him now; he was an asset to use as they saw fit, and the “acquisition” part of the job had requirements they’d never told her about. It was also the day she stopped thinking of him as a Republic asset herself; he stopped being “the Sith” and became Dar Noaa.

“And,” she added, “I’d feel a lot better if you would enjoy this a little less. “

“I’ll try.”

The clerk returned, followed by her supervisor, a human dressed in the dull brown uniform of a First Order civilian employee.

“Welcome!” the supervisor made no attempt to hide his interest. “Dar Noaa, is it? What brings you to our little world?”

“Unemployment.”

The supervisor’s oily smile melted at the reference to the Republic’s demise.

“Oh, yes; that,” he said. “Unfortunate; forgive me. Our little world doesn’t get many visitors with your “skills”; I’m sure we can find a place for you here.” Then he examined Leia. “Is this your female?”

“Yes.”

Then the supervisor noticed the healing bruises on Dar Noaa’s face and gestured for him to come closer.

“I can’t help but notice…”

“These?” Dar Noaa pointed at his face, then leaned uncomfortably close to the supervisor and pointed back at Leia. “From *her*; she’s very… *high-spirited*…” he whispered, then he flashed his eyes. “… and I *like* it.”

The supervisor’s face froze, he’d just heard more than he wanted to; but then Dar Noaa pulled out a small data cartridge and held it up in front of him, and the supervisor recovered quickly and seized it.

“Oh… yes… don’t go anywhere, I’ll be right back!”

Dar Noaa could feel Leia’s eyes burning into him as he watched the supervisor scurry off to find a superior just as the clerk had done. A side glance confirmed it.

“Well, you *are*,” he said, “and I *do*.”

 

………………………

 

APU523’s capital “city” was little more than a complex of huge warehouses and a few austere office buildings, but it was a busy place.  The “Productivity Plaza” was just an open space where concrete had replaced soil, and Everybeing that worked in the warehouses had to pass through it on their way in or out, so it also was an unofficial market. If one had the means to pay, anything from a hot meal to a few minutes with a friendly sex partner were for sale there, which made it interesting to someone like Finn, who was still learning the ways of the world outside of a Stormtrooper’s armor. He was keeping watch outside the “Opportunity and Employment” building while Dar Noaa and General Organa were inside, and the activity was helping him to stay alert.  He’d purchased something-wrapped-in-something to eat while he waited, and was surprised that it tasted so good for something so nondescript.  He had finished it and was just deciding if he wanted to get another one of these or try another something new when he saw the grey faces.

They were walking together, side by side, twelve of them, dressed in brown uniforms; they walked stiffly and kept their eyes straight ahead, so Finn couldn’t quite see the details of their faces, so he moved closer as they passed him.  One sensed him there and turned its head slightly to look at him.

Finn’s body remembered; he grabbed his finger.

The grey face turned away; Finn rubbed his finger as he watched as the column of workers continued on it way. Then the same grey face that had looked at him before *turned* and looked back.

At him.

He was about to follow when he felt something on his shoulder; a glance revealed a human hand. Startled and alarmed, Finn turned and was relieved to see brown and not white on the hand’s owner.

“You look healthy and strong,” brown uniform said. “Want a day’s work?”

“Are you with them?” Finn pointed over his shoulder at the retreating grey faces.

“They work for me; warehouse 57,” brown uniform replied. “Work the day, get paid the day.”

“I’m interested; but I have work for today. Do you come by here often?”

“Every day,” brown uniform sensed a possible deal, but he had fallen far behind his crew by this time and needed to get going. “Be here this time tomorrow if you want work.”

Finn watched him until he disappeared among the other brown uniforms, and then returned to the spot where Dar Noaa had told him to stay and keep watch.  Tomorrow, the Sith would have to watch out for himself.

 

 

……………………….

 

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, morning had come again and inside the Ren ship, one of the two living residents was already awake…

 

When all else failed him, as it often did, Ren knew he could rely on the Code; there was a rule for everything, a procedure for every situation; even the one he was in this morning. He awakened at the proper time; managed to sit up, but the second he tried to get up from the platform, his body punished his savagely for yesterday’s foolishness.

The girl was right; he was crazy.  He knew that, of course; nobody knew it better than he did. But that wasn’t important right now; what was important right now was getting up off the damned platform.

The Code was specific _: Pain is Power_

Ren closed his eyes, took a long slow breath, called the power with a single blow to his left side; and that propelled him up and off the platform.  

After that, the morning routine seemed easy; he used the sanitation station and stepped into his boots because he had no desire to sit down again lest he need to call power to get back up. Like everything else a Knight possessed, the boots were designed to be combat-ready; quick to get into, and once he found a place to steady himself, he could close the clips with a single stroke of his hand. Dressed now, routine would be to eat, but Ren wasn’t thinking about that; he was thinking about the girl. When he entered the corridor, he saw the door to the sleeper she’d chosen was open, and he looked within.

She was still asleep, curled up and hugging those rolled-up pants, her face half-covered with her hair.

He would not disturb her.

The ship knew him well; all he had to do was go to the entry and pause there, and it slid open without a command. The ramp was still wet, so he walked down it carefully, then stepped onto the ground and tested the sponge in it before trying to walk.  He had no particular intention; he just needed to walk until he had the pain under control, maybe a few times around the ship. But a quick survey of the space changed that plan when something about the path he’d cut yesterday that caught his attention; it looked different. When he walked over to it and looked down, he saw that last night’s rain had carved it out; it was steeper and smoother now. He wondered if anything had changed in the open space, too, but he’d need some kind of support in order to get down the path now, so he started searching the brush for a strong-looking stick…

 

 

…………………

 

 

 

Back on APU523, Dar Noaa and Leia had been escorted to a private office. Like everything else they’d seen so far, the office was the First Order’s idea of efficient design; furnished with a desk, a chair and a bench and nothing more.  They were told to sit on the bench, so now they were waiting for the supervisor’s -supervisor’s manager to arrive. 

“Did I tell you,” Dar Noaa slid a little bit closer to Leia, “that you make a lovely Sith?” He used his thumb to smooth a smudge of makeup on her cheek, leaned closer, then he whispered, “And we’re being watched.”

“I know.”

“Now, slap my hand away.”

“What?”

“Just do it.”

Leia obeyed; her hand hitting his made a loud snapping sound and Dar Noaa pulled away from her.

“Thank you.”

Leia was considering hitting him a second time when the door opened and the latest edition of brown uniform management entered.

“Welcome, welcome,” he went right to the desk and sat behind it, “Welcome to our little world! I am Nukimwa; I oversee the operations here.”

“Do you?” Da Noaa crossed his arms and studied the manager. “Isn’t that usually a military function?”

Nukimwa hesitated, considering what his reply should be, unconsciously giving Dar Noaa access to his thoughts, confirming everything the Sith already suspected.

“No longer,” Nukimwa tried to make it sound like an achievement. “We are almost… *independent* now.”

Dar Noaa said nothing.

“Yes; independent,” the manager filled the silence quickly, “that’s our little world…”

“How long,” Dar Noaa asked, “has it been since the military left?”

“How long?” The manager started to realize that he was not the one driving the conversation, “Why would you want to know that?”

“How *long*?”

“Many days now.”

“And you know *why* they left,” Dar Noaa pushed deeper into the manager’s mind, “don’t you?”

“Our little world is… “

“… *dying*,” Dar Noaa finished for him. “And you’ve been left behind to die with it.”

The manager frowned; hearing it from another being made it real, made it terrifying; he tried to maintain his managerial composure, but failed.

“Yes.”

“That being the case,” Dar Noaa said, “you might be interested in a business proposition that I…” he paused to look at Leia, then looked back at Nukimwa, “… *we* have to offer. How would you feel about *leaving* your little world, say… as soon as possible?”

Nukimwa’s expression changed, his eyes widened.

“Talk to me.” He said.

 

 

……………………..

 

 

 

_“It’s not* you*; it’s *me*!”_

He’d said it so loudly that Rey woke up instantly and almost fell off the platform. She wasn’t fully awake when she rolled off the platform and hurried to the corridor; and she was confused when she did not see him there.

“Ren?”

No answer.

The door to his room was open, but he was not there. Instead of searching, this morning Rey just asked the ship.

"He’s outside, isn’t he?”

The ship replied, a single ding; it even opened the entry door for her, but Rey didn’t move; the ship was watching him, so there was no need for her to go looking for him right away. She returned to the platform and sat down to clear her head.  It must have been another dream, but if so, it was a short one; all she remembered now was what he said and the look on his face as he said it. There was no going back to sleep after a wakeup like that, so Rey didn’t even attempt to; instead she got busy starting her day.

Clean, dressed and a few cubes later, Rey picked up the clothing in her sleeper that needed to be hung outside, and went to his room to see if he had anything lying about that needed to go outside, too.  Nothing had been set out for her, which meant he’d probably slept in his clothes again. She was turning to leave when her eyes passed over the shelf and she saw the lightsaber there. Ideas formed, then popped like bubbles in her mind; she should not waste this opportunity!

First, she needed to know where he was; it would be terrible if she grabbed it up and ran to the entry only to find him standing there; so she went to the entry and the door slid open automatically for her.

He was nowhere in sight. 

Where was he? If he’d gone down the path again, even if he heard or saw – or sensed – what she was doing, there was no way he could get back to the ship quickly enough to stop her.  If she was going to run, there would never be a better time than now.

She went back into the ship, back into his room, to that shelf and the lightsaber; but once she was there with her hand outstretched and hovering over it, she hesitated. This was no ordinary lightsaber, it was *his*; if it came with a vision…

Frightened, Rey tried to pull her hand away from it, but to her horror, her hand didn’t obey; instead it started to drop slowly, lower and lower.

 _Take it._  A voice whispered in her head. _Take it…_

“No!”

Rey strained to free her hand, but the pull was too strong; then a dark and irresistible desire to possess the lightsaber became the only thought in her head.

_“Take it… “_

_Almost hidden in the shadows, an ancient, boney hand unfolded, revealing a crystal. Colorless and cracked, but still beautiful; it seemed to draw what little light there was in that gloomy place into its depths and extinguish it there. And then it hungered for more._

_“This will be your weapon,” the unseen presence said, “created by the Darkness, for the Darkness; there is not another like it anywhere in the galaxy.  With this, we shall end the Jedi once and for all.”_

_“I am honored,” another unseen presence replied and another hand took the crystal from the open one, leaving it empty._

_“I will tell you when the time is right. Our wait is almost over.”_

 

…………………………

 

 

 

Ever since the First order had abandoned APU523, empty rooms in the capital were plentiful and cheap; so Manager Nukimwa insisted on providing his new business partners with accommodations for the night; two rooms, one for Dar Noaa and his female and another for their servant.  Nothing was said when they arrived; nothing was said as they walked to their respective rooms; but when Dar Noaa opened the door to “their” room,  Finn walked in right behind Leia.

“Young Finn,” Dar Noaa’s impatience was obvious, “Your General and I have had a long day; and we are tired. You’ve already gotten my permission to go exploring tomorrow; is there something *else*?”

“*This *arrangement*,” Finn raised his hands, one directed at Dar Noaa and one at Leia, bracketing them, “is *unacceptable*.”

“What arrangement?”

Finn moved his hands toward one another, shrinking the imaginary bracket around them.

“*This*.”

Finn’s gesture was meaningless to Dar Noaa; he turned to Leia for help; she was wearing a smile that suggested suppressed laughter.

“Finn is concerned,” Leia chose her words carefully because he’d been teasing her all day about that “high spirits” remark and this was an excellent opportunity to give him some of his own back, “that if you stay here tonight, you might not behave yourself. After all, you are Sith…”

“I am *not*,” Dar Noaa sounded as if the words had wounded him, “*that* kind of Sith.”

Finn’s expression testified that he was not convinced of that at all.

“We will give it an hour,” ignoring Finn, Dar Noaa spoke directly to Leia, “then we have a fight, I leave and find another place for the night. I am sure that kind of thing happens here all the time.”

“Works for me,” Leia looked at Finn, “Does that work for you?”

“I suppose so.”

“Good, then!” Dar Noaa said, “Now please, young Finn, go to your room; the grownups need to talk.”

“You should go,” Leia gave Finn a reassuring smile, “I’ll be fine.”

Finn was reluctant, but he complied.

 

Just as soon as the door closed behind young Finn and there was no longer a reason to hold back, Dar Noaa expressed how he really felt.

“What a jealous, possessive child!” he ranted.

“Which child are we talking about?” Leia asked quietly. “Finn, or you?”

 

 

………………….

 

 

 

After centuries of slow, unmeasurable microscopic alterations, the open space at the end of the gully had been transformed overnight.  The victim of a chain of events it had no part in starting, the open space was wounded now; the raging torrent of water pouring from the opened gully the night before carved a deep and narrow trench halfway across it, exposing the ancient layers of accumulated peat below.  Like the pages of a book, each layer told a story; most were simple stories of passing time, but a few were not; a  few told lurid tales of sudden and terrible events…

 

When he arrived at the open space, Ren was astonished by what he saw; yesterday, it had been a simple circle of flat spongy green, but today there was a deep cut that ran from the gully to the very center of it. Being careful to test each step before putting his weight on it, Ren made his way to the center of the open space and discovered that the trench didn’t end there; instead it dived down into the blackness below. The hole was as round and perfect as if it had been drilled, but when Ren bent over to see how deep it went, all he got for the effort was the eye-stinging stench of rising gas. He quickly retreated, turning back toward the path and fresher air.  He’d only taken a few steps when she saw the girl step out from the path into the open space.  Seeing Rey there filled him with confusion; pleasure first, then fear, then uncertainty, then all three at once. He turned to the Code for guidance.

 _When uncertain_ , it said, * _wait*._

That made sense, so he stopped where he was to give her the choice of approaching him or not. It was a fair exchange; her body moved with unpolished grace; Ren saw purity of purpose in it, which made watching her walk an acceptable pleasure.  She paused for a second or two, as if catching her breath, and she was looking at him in the strangest way.  Instinct urged him to reach out, but that was unacceptable now, so he held his ground and waited for her. 

Then he saw the lightsaber in her hand.

She stared at him for what seemed like forever, but he felt it coming, even before he saw her face change, and he knew what it meant.

“Monster!” she shrieked out her rage as she started toward him, “Murderer!”

 _I should’ve seen this coming,_ he thought.

He wasn’t afraid; he wasn’t even surprised; this was inevitable.  She’d wanted to kill him from the start; and now she would.  But any triumph she had would be brief; in killing him, she’d be killing herself as well. The instant the ship concluded that he was dead, it would reject her; and even if she managed to survive outside, she’d be utterly, completely *alone* here for the rest of her life.  Ren didn’t think; he reacted. He raised his hand and reached out with one desperately pure and focused thought:

**_NO!_ **

The rage inside her was powerful; it pushed back, cutting into him, revealing the face of his greatest enemy.

“No!” he cried, “It’s not *you*; it’s *me*!”

Her eyes glazed as if she was dreaming, Rey didn’t react to his words. She spread her feet apart, taking a stance Ren knew well.

 _Now swing it out wide,_ he stayed with her, matching his thoughts to hers _, so the secondary kick when the quillons ignite won’t hit you in the face…_

She did it, exactly as he would have.

_Now ignite it… now pull it back and up into position…_

She was poised and ready.

_Now look at me…_

Her eyes met his; the dark fury there was no stranger to him, either.

 _And now,_ he thought _, *savor* the moment…_

She stood still, just like he would have.

That moment was all Ren needed; reaching out with every bit of the Force he could summon, he took her by the throat and pulled hard. She slid across the spongy ground toward him, and when she arrived, he reached for the lightsaber. One of the quillons seared the skin on his wrist as he slipped his hand under the cross guard, but he managed to get his hand to the handle, closed it over hers, and pressed hard, switching the lightsaber off. A quick force flip, and the weapon was free; it sailed away from them  in a high graceful arc, and then it fell to the ground, bounced once and disappeared into the depthless hole at the end of the trench. 

And down there, in that unmeasurable blackness, the scorching hot tip of the lightsaber dived into fifty years’ worth of compressed natural gas, which instantly exploded.

 

 

…………………………

 

 

 

Back on APU523, Dar Noaa and Leia were having the kind of conversation that would quickly escalate into the fight that would send him out of the room. 

“Why are you so angry with him?” Leia asked. “He’s just trying to look after me; and I don’t understand why you’re being so hostile – you wanted to bring him along.”

“I should have said no.”

“About tomorrow?” Leia asked. “Do you think he would have taken “no” for an answer?”

“I do not. That’s why I said yes.”

“Then it makes no sense for you to still be angry about it, unless you’re not really angry.”

“What?”

“You’re not angry; you’re worried; you don’t want him going off on his own. You think he needs your protection.”

“He does.”

“Finn’s young, but he’s a man, Noah,” Leia told him, “there’s a limit to how much protection you can give and how much he’s willing to accept. That’s just how it is. You’re not worried because you don’t think he can take care of himself; you’re worried because you like him; anybody can see that.”

“I do like him,” Dar Noaa conceded. “What I do not like is how he has attached himself to you.”

“Try to understand him,” Leia pleaded Finn’s case. “He’s been through a great deal in a very short time; he has no one; the First Order was his family for most of his life and now that he’s left them, he’s searching for someplace to belong. I represent the Resistance; it’s not unusual that he feels drawn to me.”

“He seeks to take the place of the child you’ve lost.”

“What if he does?” Leia asked. The reference to her son brought instant resentment; Dar Noaa’s ability to say things in the worst, most painfully honest way possible never failed to amaze her. And those words always hurt.  He never meant to hurt her; it was just how he was, and he was always sorry afterwards. “Finn is a fine young man who is fighting to find his way all alone in an unforgiving galaxy, and I want to help him. He’s not trying to take anyone’s place; he just wants to feel*connected*, and right now, I’m the one he wants to feel connected to.  Did it ever occur to you that *I* might find some comfort in that?”

“Leia…”

She didn’t care if he was sorry; he was always sorry; she didn’t want to hear it again. So she took a breath and said the words she knew would hurt him back.

“And it’s none of your business, anyway.”

He was quiet; she’d hit a nerve. Their friendship always ran into the same problem; he’d step over a line, she’d remind him of his place and then he would leave.

“I should go now,” he said.

“Yes,” she replied coldly, “You should.”

 

 

……………………..

 

 

 

The hot, humid air of the late afternoon was heavy with the aroma of peat. An intoxicating blend of old and new; it promised food and shelter to anything brave enough to venture into the new open space.  The fly was hungry; she was also pregnant, so she accepted the invitation and followed the scent to its source.  First she investigated the rim, following it until she’d completed the circle and was back where she started. Then she spiraled down and in, looking for a place to land and rest and perhaps make a nest, and she spotted something smooth and pale sticking up from the fluffy material. It looked sturdy enough, an ideal perch…

 

The light touch of a bug on her nose brought Rey back to consciousness. She swatted it away and was rubbing her nose to be sure it was gone when she opened her eyes and saw the sky.  She had no idea where she was or why; for a minute she believed this was just another dream; but a horrible stink and a heavy weight bearing down on her quickly ended that idea.  She used her hands to sweep away whatever the fluffy stuff covering her was, and discovered that the weight she was under was Ren.  He was face-down on top of her, and it was his body that was pinning hers there. Fear erased her confusion; she quickly brushed his head and shoulders clear of the material and put her fingers to his neck.

A pulse, strong and steady, answered the question her fingers were asking, and she sobbed with relief.

“Ren?” she gave him a little shove, then a stronger one. “Ren?”

“No…”

“Wake up,” she begged. “Please, wake up…”

He must have heard her because he opened his eyes, but he didn’t move.

“That… ” he said it slowly, as if he was having trouble finding the words, “… *really*… hurt.”

“Are you all right?”

“Give me a minute,” he moved a little, testing his body. “I think so …” he pulled his right arm out of the fluff and looked at the burn on his wrist. “Yes.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s nothing.”

“What…?” Rey didn’t know what to ask first, so she tried to ask it all at once. “… where?”

“Open space,” he answered the second question first because that was the one thing he was clear about; he was in the open space.  A second later, he became clear on where he was at the moment, but he felt no urge to move.  He could hear her heart beating and air moving in her lungs; she was alive and so was he.  He did not believe in miracles; but in this case, he was willing to try.

“I can’t believe that worked!”

He didn’t mean to say it out loud, but it was too late now; and he’d have to tell her anyway in order to explain what happened.

“What worked?” she asked, “What happened?”

“I came down here… ” Ren wanted to remember it correctly, so he was doing it in order, “… then you came down here and tried to kill me…” he paused to make sure he was getting it right. “… but I wouldn’t let you… and then… something… exploded…”

“What?”

A single drop of rain hit Rey’s face, followed quickly by another. She looked up and saw that the sky was already completely overcast; the dark gray clouds were heavy with water and ready to release their burden to the ground below. 

“The rain’s coming.” She whispered it like a warning, which it was. “We have to get out of here. Can you get up?”

He pushed himself up and rolled, landing on his back beside her. 

“Yes.”

Rey saw him close his left hand into a fist and start to raise it, and she knew what he was going to do next. In seconds, she was on her knees, leaning over him, holding his hand in hers.

“I’m here,” she told him, “I can help; *let* me.”

 

By the time Ren and Rey struggled through the fluff, then climbed the crater wall, then crawled up the path through the surging stream of rainwater, then walked through the growing puddles to the ramp, they were soaked through and filthy - and utterly exhausted.  The last few meters up the ramp and into the ship seemed unimportant now, though; when they reached the ramp, they simply collapsed onto it and lay there, side by side, letting the rain wash the new open space and the gully off of them. 

“I’m sorry if I tried to kill you,” Rey said. “The last thing I remember, I was in the ship collecting laundry.”

“You took the lightsaber.”

“I did?” Rey focused her thoughts, “No; I thought about it, but I decided not to. I was pulling my hand away when it took me.”

“Took you?”

“Sometimes when I touch something, it takes me; it tells me its story.”

“Memory trace,” It had been a long time, but Ren knew about them; how powerful they could be; how it felt to endure them. The Knights taught him how to shut himself down when it happened, rendering the memories powerless against him; and he’d forgotten they existed until recently. “You should have told me.”

“I was afraid.”

“You were right to be afraid.” There was no threat in his words, he was just agreeing with her. It was truly unfortunate that she’d had to endure the story his lightsaber had to tell, but as terrible as it must have been for her, it surely convinced her that he was indeed the monster she believed he was; that would extinguish the light in her eyes when she looked at him and he would stop feeling it. “I am sorry about the lightsaber; that you had to see me… “

“I didn’t see you,” Rey answered, “I saw *hands*… and a crystal… I don’t remember anything after that.”

“Hands?”

“Not your hands.” Rey was sure of that.  “And I heard them; I couldn’t see their faces, but I heard every word they said. And I don’t know why, but I think they were talking about *you*,” she pointed at her forehead, “It’s in here, you can take it…”

“It’s *my* lightsaber, I don’t have to take anything; I know its story.”

“Then let me give it to you.”

She knew that he knew how to do it; it flashed in his head as soon as she said the words.  And now she knew how to do it, too; all she had to do was reach out and touch him…

She touched his nose with her finger.

_“This will be your weapon, created by the Darkness, for the Darkness; there is not another like it anywhere in the galaxy.  With this, we shall end the Jedi once and for all.”_

_“I am honored.”_

_“I will tell you when the time is right. Our wait is almost over.”_

Ren recognized his precious Kyber crystal; he didn’t recognize the voice of the giver, but the other voice, the voice of the taker, the voice of the one who was “honored”, the voice of the one he’d been so eager to believe, so eager to please; the voice of the one who told him over and over and over again that he was perfect…

Snoke!

 

………………

 


	15. Chapter 15

 

 -15-

 

Early morning in the capital city of APU523 was surprisingly quiet; the first of its two suns was already high in the “eastern” sky, and a bright glow on the horizon warned that its second sun was would be rising soon, but few beings were out and about.  Compared to the hustle and bustle of the day before, the town seemed almost deserted.

Leia Organa looked out the window of the room where she’d spent the night and the view made her uneasy. She was dressed and ready, but Dar Noaa had not yet returned to collect her for their second day inside APU523’s Central Management Center.  Nukimwa had given them a thorough tour of the building yesterday, making sure that he spent enough time in each section to disguise which ones he’d been specifically asked about. Leia’s job was to watch and remember important details about the building and the beings working there, so Dar Noaa could focus on getting information from the manager.  If something went wrong, it would be Leia’s responsibility to get them out of there. The building, and its occupants, too, projected collective indifference; but Leia knew enough about the First Order to suspect the image projected did not match the reality behind it.

There was no way she could take a blaster along; the thin, silky material of her “his female” outfit couldn’t hide or disguise anything, but one of the white knee-high boots she was wearing was able to accommodate a slender dagger. Now she had a weapon should she need one, and if it was discovered, it wouldn’t cause much of a stir, because having a dagger in one’s boot was a very Sith thing to do.  

When the knock at the door came and Leia opened it, she was surprised to see Finn there, not Dar Noaa as she’d expected.

“Good morning, General,” Unlike his words, Finn’s eyes were not directed at Leia; instead they were surveying the space around her. “I wanted to check in before I head out.”

“At ease, stormtrooper,” Leia said, “Dar Noaa is not here. He left last night not long after you, just as he said he would.”

Embarrassed that he’d been so obvious and so quickly caught, Finn lowered his eyes.

“Yes, General,” he mumbled.

“I know it’s not easy, but try to understand him,” Leia touched Finn’s arm gently, hoping to reassure him. “Dar Noaa is not like us; but he is *with* us. He’s been through a great deal; he’s been alone among strangers for a long time, serving the interest of the Republic in a very difficult and demanding job that you know *nothing* about. You don’t have to like him, but you do have to respect him; is that clear?”

“Yes, General.”

“Believe what I’m telling you; you can trust him, Finn. I trust him; we’ve been friends for long time.”

“I think he wants to be more than that,” Finn spoke the words without thinking first. “Maybe you shouldn’t trust him so much.”

Leia sighed loudly.

“Finn,” she was using her General’s voice now, “He and I have worked together before with great success; and I expect this to be no different.”

“But things *are* different now.”

Finn’s words cut deep; they carried accusation. Finn had only known Han for a few days; but it was obvious that Finn idolized him. And why shouldn’t he? Han was charming and brave and easy to love; Leia loved him deeply.  But he’d left her; Takodana was the first time she’d seen him in years; but Finn didn’t know that.  The Darth Vader revelation had cost her dearly; first her son, then her brother, and finally, her marriage; all were literally gone. She soldiered on alone, as always, hiding her grief and loneliness behind the steel wall that was General Leia Organa and everyone accepted that illusion.  Everyone, that was, except Dar Noaa; he could knock the wall down as quickly as she could build it, and he often did exactly that, resulting in spectacular arguments. And the worst of those spectacular arguments always happened right before he left on an assignment; he would show up unexpectedly with a “small request” for information or technology, and Leia would invariably find a way to provide what he’d requested no matter how angry he’d made her while requesting it.  So many times, so many harsh words, yet there was one word neither of them ever said then; goodbye.

“While I appreciate your concern,” Leia softened her tone a bit, “and I’m truly *flattered* by it; you are way out of line, Finn, so there will be no more of it; understood?”

“Yes, General.” Finn’s face confirmed that he’d been duly chastised.

“You get going now,” Leia brought things to an end. “Stay out of trouble and don’t return late.”

“Yes, General.”

“And,” she added, “Be careful out there.”

 

Only a few minutes later, there was another knock on her door, and this time it was Dar Noaa.

“Are you ready?” he seemed anxious and distracted as he asked.

“Yes,” Leia stretched her arms out, and turned slowly, “Do I pass inspection?”

“What?”

“Do I look right?”

“Oh, that…” he gave her a quick look up and down, “Yes, of course.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Something happened last night,” he replied, “There was a sudden burst of activity out there,” he pointed at the window, “and this morning, the streets are empty, as if anybody who could leave has gone. I’ve already sent for the ves... Visitor… to come for us, and I sent a message to young Finn. We have this morning to do what we can, but that’s it.”

“Then we’d better hurry.”

 

………………..

 

When Finn arrived at Productivity Plaza, he found it almost deserted; yesterday’s activity had been replaced with eerie quiet.  He didn’t think he was unusually early, but most of the vendor booths were still sealed up tight from last night. When he received the message from Dar Noaa to break off his mission for the day and meet them in the plaza, Finn believed the Sith was just having another round of second thoughts about letting him “go off on his own”; but standing there now, he had a really bad feeling about it. It felt *wrong* somehow; and Finn’s instincts were almost always right. Since Finn was already where they wanted him to be, he decided to fill the wait time with food.  He ordered a small bowl of something at one of the few vendors that were open, but when he offered an open palm of exchange coins to pay for it, the vendor said “This morning, there is no cost.”  

“Thank you,” Finn replied, then added, “It’s quiet here this morning, where is everyone?”

“Some days,” the vendor answered in a flat, resigned tone, “are like that.”

Finn had not yet tasted the contents of the bowl when movement at the far entrance of the plaza caught his attention; it was the column of brown uniformed grey faces, and behind them, the brown uniform that Finn had spoken with yesterday. Finn put the bowl to his lips, gulped its contents down in four quick gulps, returned the bowl to the vendor, and then hurried to catch up to them. Even though he’d offered Finn work yesterday, brown uniform seemed surprised to see him.

“Remember me?” Finn greeted him. “I’m ready to work.”

The column of grey faces stopped and turned together to look at him. Their collective gaze was alarming; it made Finn’s skin crawl and for a few long seconds, he felt trapped, totally helpless, as they examined him. Then the grey faces turned to the brown uniform, another few seconds passed and then the grey faces all turned away and started walking again.

“Come with us,” brown uniform spoke, but Finn got the feeling those were not his words, “And hurry.”

 

…………….

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, heavy rain had flooded the crater that was the new open space, transforming it overnight into a shallow circular pond.  Everything that wasn’t already underwater was thoroughly soaked through, so the crater wall was unstable and slippery; anyone foolish enough to venture too close was certain to lose their footing and slide into the stinking brown water below, which was why Rey was taking her time. It was a ridiculous quest; it would be a miracle if anything remained of that lightsaber; and even more of a miracle if they could actually find it in the muck. For all they knew, the explosion could have launched it into space outright, but Ren insisted on looking for it, which meant Rey had to look for it, too, if only to keep him from hurting himself again.  She was able to convince him that he’d serve his purpose best by remaining at the path and using the Force to seek the lightsaber, then directing her where to look.  She was surprised when he immediately told her to go right; no hesitation at all. That was the advantage of being born into a family that knew the Force; Ren had a lifetime’s experience using it, so it was natural for him. But it wasn’t easy for him; she’d learned that lesson last night when she gave him her vision without thinking it through first. As soon as the vision released him, he pushed himself up from the ramp, got to his feet and walked up to the entry without saying a word. Rey followed, catching up to him in the corridor.

“Was I right?” she asked, “Was it about you?”

“You should not have done that,” he replied.

There was anger and hurt in his eyes; Rey didn’t understand why, but she knew it was her doing.

“I told you no,” he continued, “and I meant no. You could have just *told* me.”

“I thought giving it to you would be easier…”

“And it was; but every time you use the Force because it’s “easier”, you’re talking a step down a path you might not want to follow. You are strong with the Force, yes, you learn *how* to use it easily; but you *understand* nothing. You must learn *control*.”

Hearing that coming from him irritated her instantly; if there was anybody who needed to learn control, it was him.

“But I was right, wasn’t I?”

“Yes.”

That was all he said and then he left her there, standing in the corridor dripping water onto the floor, watching him go to his room and close the door behind him. When she saw him again this morning, all he wanted to talk about was the lightsaber, and now she was working her way through the quagmire following his directions.  She was grumbling “stupid and stubborn” to herself as she pushed the next bush aside.

“Here it is!” she shouted, “I found it!”

All she’d found so far was the handle; the lightsaber was in the muck up to its crossguard.

“Don’t touch it!” Ren shouted back.

He’d get no argument from her about that; but there was no way he’d be able to negotiate the quagmire to its location without getting himself into trouble, so how to retrieve it became the question she should have asked an hour ago.

“What do we do now?”

“Can you step around it and get behind?”

“Okay.” Rey moved a few steps forward and turned, “Now what?”

“Look at it.”

“Okay.”

“Now lift it.”

“But you just told me not to…”

“Not with your hands.”

“Oh.”

“Lift; nothing more - if you can raise it, I can take it from there.”

“Okay,” Rey closed her eyes and tried to settle herself; she’d done this once before without even thinking about it; the rage she felt that night did it for her.  This time, she would be the one controlling it. Maybe he was trying to be her teacher again, or maybe he just wanted his lightsaber back; either way, she wanted to please him, so she opened her eyes, put out her hand and focused.

Nothing.

She tried again, and again, nothing. She expected him to shout something, but he just stood there watching her. It was odd that someone known to be so explosively volatile could show such patience…

“Focus!” he called to her, “Don’t think about anything else.”

“How do I do that?”

“Watch and learn.”

Suddenly she was in his head; she didn’t know if she’d invaded him or if he’d pulled her in. He had his hands cupped in front of him, and floating in the air just above the bowl his palms made, a tiny ball of red light was spinning.  It seemed magical and effortless; all he was doing was…

Rey tried again; this time the lightsaber popped out of the muck with a loud slurp and shot up into the air, high over her head. Rey feared she was going to drop it into the pond; the instant she thought that, her power over it evaporated and it started to fall - but then it stopped and hovered in place. Ren had it now; it floated toward him slowly, losing altitude along the way.  Rey reached out; putting her power under the lightsaber like a hand, supporting it; and it dropped no further as it continued its journey to Ren.   

A moment later, it was in his hands.

 

 

………………….

 

 

Back on APU523, Finn was getting his first look inside Warehouse 57. The building was enormous, but it was also mostly empty space; as soon as the group entered the building, the grey faces separated, each individual headed to an isolated workstation and got busy there.  The brown shirt led Finn to the closest workstation, told him to wait there and promptly departed through the door they’d just entered. Finn watched the first grey face carefully lift a small box from under the workstation counter and place it there. Then the grey face retrieved another box, and more after that, until five of them were lined up on the counter in front of him.

“Choose a box,” the grey face told him.

“What?”

“Choose one, any one.”

Finn tapped the third box in line.

“Good,” the grey face said, then pointed across the building floor towards another workstation. “Take this box over there.”

Finn picked up the box; it wasn’t heavy, but its contents shifted slightly when he moved it. The grey face continued to point, silently urging him on his way. When he arrived at the next workstation, the grey face received the box from him, placed it underneath the counter, and then proceeded to pull out five boxes one after the other, just as the first grey face had done, and line them up on the counter.

“Choose a box.”

This time, Finn tapped the first one in line.

“Good,” the grey face said, then pointed to another workstation “Take this box over *there*.”

Finn obeyed, and at the next workstation, the grey face did exactly the same thing the others had done; each time the box was received, boxes were presented, he chose one and then was sent to another workstation, and each workstation visited took him further and further into the huge building. By the time he found himself at the twelfth workstation facing the last of the grey faces, Finn had crisscrossed the warehouse floor eleven times, and he was feeling the effort in his legs.  There was something different about this last grey face; Finn couldn’t quite figure out why, but he felt sure this was the one that had looked at him yesterday.  He delivered the box, watched the grey face put it under the counter, and then watched as the grey face brought five boxes out from under and line them up. He was anticipating which box he should choose when the grey face spoke up.

“*You* should not be here,” it said sternly.

“Why not?” Finn asked in response. “Why shouldn’t I be here? Have you seen me before? Do you know me?”

“There is nothing for you here,” the grey face waved a dismissive hand, “This place is *finished*; you must be away from this world before this night ends, or you will be finished, too.”

“I’m trying to find…”

“If you stay here, you will find nothing but death,” the grey face cut him off, “Now, choose a box.”

Finn’s finger throbbed as if it were about to explode as he considered each of the five boxes, then selected the third one in line and tapped it.

“Good,” the grey face said, “Now let’s see who you are.”

It took hold of the third box and gently forced the top up and off; the lid landed on the counter with a loud tap. The open box was irresistible; Finn leaned over and looked down into it. It was full of gravel and dirt. Confused, Finn looked at the grey face.

“In there,” the grey face pointed into the box, “you will find what you seek.”

Without thinking, Finn put his hand into the box and began to sift through the mixture. His fingers hit something smooth and solid hidden beneath the surface; he took hold of it, and then he pulled it out to look.  A crystal; perfectly clear and sparkling, light seemed to flow out of it in all directions, filling the space around it with brightness; Finn had never seen anything so beautiful before.

“What is this?” the question was whispered, almost reverent; Finn was spellbound.

“It’s *yours*,” the grey face answered quietly, its tone matching Finn’s. “Show it to your Sith; he will teach you what you must know. And tell him the answer is “yes”.”

“I will.” Finn promised.

 

…………………….

 

When Leia and Dar Noaa arrived at Nukimwa’s office, it was empty.  There was not one living being to be seen, but an aged protocol droid approached them and delivered a message from the manager. Nukimwa wanted them to meet him in the APU Security building as soon as they could, because he’d obtained what they were seeking.  The Security building was a long walk, but the emptiness of the streets gave them motivation to hurry.  When they arrived at the building, there was no activity there; Dar Noaa sat at one of the many workstations and searched until he found a directory listing.

“This one,” he decided. “Systems Control . We’ll start there and work our way down.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this, Noah.”

“You are not alone in that,” he agreed, “we’ll make this quick.”

 

They took one of the elevators to ride up to the Systems Control level; the building was fully wired for surveillance, some cameras were obvious, other were not, so there was no reason to use stealth.  If anyone remained to be watching, they had already been seen. Once there, they encountered nobody at all as they made their way through the open clerk area, and checked offices along the wall.  When they arrived at a door marked “Restricted: Code Entry Only”, the door slid open automatically and they saw Nukimwa inside, sitting behind a desk. The manager had a huge forced smile on his face, his eyes were wide with terror; but it was too late when Dar Noaa sensed the other presence in the room with them – they were already inside the door.

 

 

……………………

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, the quest for the lightsaber had ended with success, but now Ren had to deal with the consequences of his actions. His lightsaber was non-functional, perhaps irretrievably so. The initial blast had been purely vertical, it surged into the open plasma shroud and hit the crystal full force, but since a Kyber crystal was virtually indestructible, little damage was done there; the plate beneath it was still intact.  The handle was another matter; the crossguards were contorted and one of them had split; Ren hadn’t opened it yet, but he was pretty sure the power core and conductors were dead; but he had some hope that the focusing shunt had survived.  He set the lightsaber down on his sleep platform and went to the corridor, where Rey had just returned from hanging out the day’s dirty clothes for night wash.  She looked good in his black tunic, especially since it was according to Code and therefore automatically acceptable to look at.

“Well?” she asked expectantly, “Can you fix it?”

“I don’t know yet. I need my kit.”

His words were directed to Rey, but the ship heard him and a shallow compartment that was above her reach, but not his, slid out of the wall behind her and Ren pulled a container out of it.

“Can I watch?” she asked.

Ren considered for a second; there was no reason to deny her request; learning always had purity of purpose and one day, she might construct a lightsaber of her own. And then she would probably use it to kill him, so he should make the effort and teach her well.

“All right, but before I start,” he advised her, “I want you to know that I’m not very good with this kind of thing.”

“But I am!” she replied.

 

……………………………..

 

 

On APU523, time was running out.

 

“I’m so sorry,” Nukimwa was trembling as he spoke, “I had no choice; they have my family.”

“I’m sorry, too,” Dar Noaa replied.

Four black uniforms had them now; First Order Secret Service. Dar Noaa wondered if the manager had sold them out or if it had been simply bad luck; this was not going to end well. One of the black uniforms searched him, but found little; a few exchange coins and a small metal rod were tossed onto the desk in front of him. Another black uniform searched Leia, found the dagger in her boot and handed it over to the black uniform in charge.

“I know who you are,” black uniform in charge played with the blade as he spoke, “Dar Noaa, renegade Sith. Why are you here?”

“I need a job; someone blew up my old one.”

“You have a dark sense of humor, Dar Noaa,” Black uniform in charge smiled and twirled the tip of the blade just above his finger. “I wonder, just how dark *is* a Sith’s sense of humor?” he gestured and one of the black uniforms grabbed Leia from behind and pushed her forward, “For instance, how deep would I have to cut before I hit a nerve?”

“Threats are unnecessary,” Dar Noaa replied calmly. “Let the female go; the Republic is gone; I’ll tell you anything you want to know. *Willingly*.  I will start with this planet is doomed; had I known that sooner, I would not even be here.”

“I’d rather hear about how you came to be here; where is that remarkable ship you stole from the First Order?”

“Hosnian Prime.”

“Amusing,” black uniform in charge was growing impatient, “but you would never have left it behind to be destroyed; not after what you did to get it.”

“If you know about *that*,” Dar Noaa replied, “you should be afraid right now.” He released his eyes from control and they started to glow. “Release the female if you want to live.”

Black uniform in charge let out an angry, contemptuous laugh, and then lunged forward toward Leia with the blade; it was meant to be a threat only, but he misjudged the distance and the blade edge slid onto Leia’s forearm, cutting her. She let out a breathless shriek of pain.  Dar Noaa’s eyes blazed bright yellow, like one of the dying stars in the sky outside the building, and with one gesture, the Sith sent black uniform in charge flying backwards, *through* the wall and into the room beyond. The three other black uniforms jumped back, but before they could move to defend themselves, Dar Noaa gestured again, lifting all three of them at once and twisting their necks completely around, killing them instantly.  The bodies dropped to the floor behind the desk, where Nukimwa sat frozen in terror.  Dar Noaa reached out; there was the sound of bones being crushed and the manager gasped once, then went still.

It was over.

It took a few seconds of concentrated effort before Dar Noaa was able to regain control of himself. Leia was standing beside him, pressing her hand on the cut and staring at him in amazement.

“I thought you said,” she whispered, even though everybeing within earshot was dead, “that you weren’t *that* kind of Sith.”

“Most of the time, I’m not.”

 

……………………

 

After receiving multiple messages, all saying the same thing, “go directly to the ship”, Finn raced through the now totally deserted streets of the city as fast as his legs would carry him. Everything around him was terrifyingly silent; there was no sound, no motion; there was only the relentless brightness of the two suns overhead. He thought he had another kilometer to go when he looked up and saw the Visitor hovering overhead, as if it were looking for him. He waved and shouted, and to his great relief, the ship spiraled down and landed in an open space nearby.  He was onboard for only seconds when he felt the crush of the ship accelerating up and into space.  He slid down a wall and sat on the floor to ride it out, and when it was over, he immediately went to check on his General. She was not in the cockpit; only Poe and Dar Na were there.

“She’s with Dar Noaa,” Poe answered Finn’s question without interest, his mind was entirely on how quickly Viz could make the jump to Hyperspace. Dar Na didn’t say anything at all; he looked at Finn and then turned his attention back to the waveform display, leaving Finn to find his general on his own. He found her sitting on the sleep platform in his room, which was her room now; he was sitting beside her, wrapping her arm with a bandage.

“What happened?”

“We ran into a little trouble,” Leia replied first; the Sith was silent. “I got a little cut here on my arm, but it’s nothing. How did it go for you?”

“Weird. Very weird,” Finn summed it up, “and scary. They made me chose little boxes of dirt over and over again, then they told me to get off the planet, and then they made me pick something out of an open box - *this*,” he pulled out the crystal and held it up for them to see.  Both Leia and Dar Noaa stared at it in surprised silence. “And they told me that *you*,” Finn pointed his finger at Dar Noaa, “would teach me what I must know… and to tell you the answer is “yes”.”

“Yes?” Dar Noaa asked, “What was the question?”

“How would I know?” Finn’s hostility was starting to show again. “I’m just the messenger.”

“We’re not quite done here, Finn,” Leia went straight into General speak to calm things down. “Go get yourself cleaned up and eat something, and later, we’ll have a talk.”

“Yes, General.” Finn surrendered and left.

 

They sat quietly; she watched him finish the bandage and inspect his work.

“This will do for now,” he said, “it’s small, it will heal quickly; but it’s going to leave a scar.”

“Won’t be my first.”

“Or your last; there always seems to be enough time to get one more scar.”

There was a trace of sadness in his voice; something that went beyond the exhaustion and frustration they both felt about the failed mission. He’d been quiet ever since they left that room and those bodies behind; he’d gone totally Sith there, he’d become someone he’d never let her see before.  Leia wondered if he believed that had changed things between them. Had things changed? She searched her feelings and discovered that it had. He’d eliminated the danger with astonishingly lethal speed and it was a terrifying thing to witness; but the truth was that the entire time, all Leia was thinking about was him, and all she cared about at that moment was him. Things had changed, all right.

“You saved my life,” she told him; “You saved both our lives.”

“Yes,” he answered, “right after I walked us into the trap that made it necessary to do so.”

“I walked in beside you, not behind you.”

He reached out and took her hand in his, and that was enough for them both for now.

 

 

………………………..

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, the components of the disassembled lightsaber were lined up on the sleep platform and ready. In front of the platform, Ren and Rey were sitting on the floor with Ren’s kit between them.

“Do not touch anything on the platform unless I tell you to,” Ren warned, “there’s no way to tell; any one of these parts might set off a memory trace,” He passed his hand over the line of parts, and then stopped when he reached the Kyber crystal, “and especially, don’t touch *this* even if I say you can.”

“Got it.”

“I’m going to hold up a part, and you’re going to see if we have one in the kit.”

“Got it.”

“What?”

“What what?”

“You’re giving me that look again.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes, you are.”

“Okay, I am; it’s just that we could do this a whole lot faster if you’d let me do it for you. I already know what these parts are; except for that… and that… and that… everything else is in the kit.  And if a memory trace takes hold of me, it’s not like I’d have a working lightsaber in my hands this time around.”

Ren didn’t reply, but he did push his hair back, out of his face, a sign that he was considering it.

“Come on,” Rey urged, “it’s getting late and you still need to have face time before either of us can get any sleep.”

“All right, just… take your time.”

“Got it. Let’s start with the power assembly, those field conductors look fried to me…”

Ren handed her the empty handle housing and watched as she went to work.

 

By the time the lightsaber had been rebuilt to the point that it could receive the Kyber crystal again, it was very late.  They were both tired, but too excited to even consider stopping for the night with the end result so close. Ren inserted the crystal and secured it, adjusted the settings to the lowest power, and then looked at Rey.

“We really should be testing this outside,” he said.

“It’s pouring rain out there,” Rey replied, “and we are wearing the only dry clothes we have. If you think we should wait til morning, maybe…”

“No,” Ren got his feet, “we can do it now,” he was already on his way out the door, “in the corridor.”

“Do what you want,” Rey stood up; she couldn’t resist following to watch. “it’s your ship.”

He stood quietly in the corridor for a few minutes to clear his mind, and then he tested how the lightsaber felt in his hand by swinging it in all directions.

“Balance is good,” he said. “I’m impressed; you really know what you’re doing, Rey. Stand back inside the doorway.”

Rey obeyed; this was about to get seriously serious.

Ren stretched his arm out to the side, took a determined breath and pressed.  The primary blade ignited smoothly, casting a rich, red glow throughout the corridor. He heard the hiss of the side vents opening, and the quillon plasma blades ignited as smoothly as the primary blade had. The lightsaber was not only repaired and functional; it was better than it had ever been.

“This is,” Ren swung the lightsaber with confidence; the afterimage of its motion creating intricate designs in their heads. He switched it off; the verdict was in. “*excellent*!”

Victorious, Rey rushed up to him, threw her arms around his neck and hugged him.  He went absolutely rigid, as if she’d just frozen him solid, but Rey was too tired and happy to notice. After a few seconds, he relaxed and slowly, carefully, he put his arms around her and gently hugged her back.

 

 

…………………….

 


	16. Chapter 16

-16-

 

Luke Skywalker’s new right hand had a few issues.

The first issue was that it looked like part of a skeleton; each articulated finger was nothing more than metal rods, joints and pins. If hidden inside his robe sleeve when he walked, this was not a problem; but if it happened to slip out into view, it tended to attract undesirable attention.  They were working on a glove for it, but until the glove was finished, Luke had to remain mindful of where the hand was and how it looked because the sight of it reminded the crew of the Resistance transport just how desperate their situation was and had a bad effect on morale. With their general gone, the Residence fighters looked to him for inspiration; it was a job he did not want, but there was no escaping it, so he took care to make his appearances among them as brief and positive as he could.

The second issue was that one finger’s joints did not move smoothly and often got stuck; this caused difficulty in grasping objects securely. It was the second issue that brought Luke out to the hanger bay to the Millennium Falcon, to consult Chewbacca.  All those years of adventure on the Falcon had made Chewy an expert on fixing archaic, uncooperative hardware.  

The Wookie was managing his own issues by keeping himself busy with maintenance; the Falcon had not been properly serviced in years. On top of the ship inspecting the vents when Luke arrived, Chewy called a greeting and gestured for Luke to go inside and he’d be right down.  When Luke entered the communal space and saw Maz sitting bent over and almost hidden by the dejarik table, he was dismayed to see that she was looking even wearier and more drained than before.

“Don’t say it,” Maz’s greeting was acidic. “I know how I look.”

“Isn’t it time,” Luke slid in beside her, “that you let us know what’s going on? Maybe we can do something to help.”

“There is nothing to be done, Luke,” Maz replied, “unless you know how to turn back time.”

Luke sighed deeply; he understood what she was saying. Her words had the same tone of resignation that he remembered Yoda having, and then his father, too, when their times had come.  Everything in the galaxy had a beginning and an end, that was an indisputable fact; and between those two events, a being would only have the expectation, the hope, of time being generous. In Maz’s case, time had been generous indeed, over a thousand years; but it came at a heavy price. Luke himself could not expect much more time, but he didn’t envy Maz; one lifetime was more than enough for him.

“Have you told Chewbacca?” he asked.

“Not yet,” Maz shook her head; hesitation in the motion reflected her reluctance. “So soon, after losing Han Solo, I can’t make myself do it. But I’m sure he senses it,” she looked into Luke’s eyes, “and you will leave it to me, won’t you?”

“Yes.”

“Good,” Maz seemed to brighten up. “Now, I have a question to ask you.”

“Anything.”

“Why,” Maz looked in deep, “did you let your sister go with the Sith? You’d only just rejoined her, yet you immediately sent her way.”

Luke considered his answer.  There were two reasons; one was logical, the other, not so much. He decided to try logic first.

“*This*,” he raised his new hand to show her. “I can hardly hold a glass of water right now, much less wield a lightsaber.  When Leia and I are together, there is always a risk we will be *seen* - you know what I mean – and until I get control over this new hand, she’s safer with him.”

“You trust him?

“I *do*, Maz,” Luke stressed the word. “When it comes to Leia, I trust him completely.”

Maz’s eyes grew bright with interest, a silent demand for more information, but Luke was reluctant to add anything to what he’d already said, so he pretended not to notice.  She waited on his reply for an uncomfortably long time, but then a sly smile appeared on her face.

“It’s a curious thing, time,” she told him. “Time was, you would have killed that Sith at the slightest provocation; time now, you trust him “completely” with your sister’s life. Yes, a curious thing… sometimes all you need to make things right is… time.”

It was such a strange thing to hear that Luke didn’t have a response. He was about to ask her what she meant when Chewbacca appeared carrying the tool box.  Luke raised the new hand to show him the issues, and Chewbacca howled a laugh.

“Can you fix this?” Luke asked.

“Sure,” Chewbacca replied, “Shift over, you two… ”

 

 

………………………..

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, it was either very, very late at night or very early in the morning; the nightly downpour was unusually hard and made it impossible to tell.  There was also something unusual happening inside the Ren ship; the steady background sound of the rain outside was being slowly lost to the sound of things in motion. 

In Rey’s sleeper, the cup she’d left sitting on the sleep platform just above her head was trembling; the movement was slight at first, but every second it became stronger and more violent, until the cup walked itself to the edge of the platform and dropped off.  The clang of metal hitting the floor woke Rey instantly, but it took a few seconds for her to wake up enough hear the commotion that now included repeating dings from the ship. A tremor was rocking the ship, and everything inside was vibrating. Back on Jakku, an event like this would usually mean a sand quake was happening someplace close by, so Rey’s first thought was “swamp quake” and she was off the platform and on her feet in another second and then quickly out the open door to the corridor.  She saw Ren standing there and went straight to him.

“Ren?”

He didn’t reply; in fact, he didn’t do anything at all, not even glance her way. He was standing there with his eyes staring straight ahead, but like a statue’s, his eyes were looking at nothing.  The vibration grew stronger, and the ship and its contents began to shake even harder - except for Ren; he was absolutely still, as if his body was not even touching the floor he was standing on. Rey staggered a step closer and reached for his left wrist, but the instant she touched him, a small but fierce discharge of red energy stung her finger tips, making her release him. She took hold of his wrist again; this time, she held on tight through the discharge. Filaments of glowing red energy wound themselves around her hand and up her arm, but then quickly faded away.

“Ren?” Rey shook his wrist hard, but he didn’t react, so she stepped in front of him, put her face close to his and shouted, “Ren!”

The vibrations stopped instantly. A second later, his face came back to life; he blinked his eyes and then he looked at her with questions in them.

“I don’t know,” she answered without being asked. “Everything was shaking, it woke me up; and I found you out here; only you were… I don’t know.”

“That sounds about right,” he closed his eyes and nodded; this was nothing new. “I was sleepwalking. I’m sorry that I frightened you.”

“No you weren’t,” she argued, her face showing her worry. “You were *standing*, right... here... but you weren’t here at all, were you? You were… out *there*,” she pointed up, “… doing something. What?”

“Dreaming,” Ren confessed it like a little boy, “I would have warned you about it, but I haven’t had dreams for a very long time.”

“It didn’t look like a dream to me,” Rey replied, “it looked like a nightmare.”

A sudden wave of weakness overtook Ren and he went limp like one of Rey’s old rag dolls back on Jakku. She held on tightly as his legs gave out; easing his fall by taking it with him. They were on the floor now, she was under him; his right arm was draped over her left side and his head had landed on her chest. He’d fainted hard and made no effort to move, but she could feel his chest rising and falling against her body; good strong breaths. She made a slight adjustment, nestling the left side of his face between her breasts to keep the healing right side up.

“It’s okay; you’re okay,” she whispered to him. “We’re just gonna stay… right… here… for now.”

And they did.

 

 

………………...

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, onboard the Visitor, Leia Organa was giving Finn his very first formal lesson about the Force. 

So far, she was keeping things very simple; what it was, how some beings were “Force-sensitive” and could make use of the Force, how some Force-sensitives were drawn to the Light Side and some to the Dark Side, and some chose to remain neutral or rejected the Force outright. That information immediately drew an interrogation from Finn about who was what and why. Leia knew that the explanation would quickly become difficult, so she told her own story first because to her, it was the simplest; how she grew up not knowing she herself was Force-sensitive, not knowing she had a twin brother, and then how a highly improbable chain of events threw them together and resulted in victory over the Empire.

She did not continue her story beyond that because she’d convinced herself that getting Finn to understand that yes, the Sith down the corridor came from the Dark side, but he didn’t spend much time there - so he was trustworthy - was more important right now than anything relating to her son. Leia chose her words carefully, so she wasn’t actually lying when she told Finn that; and she left out the incident on APU523 entirely because, she told herself, she hadn’t fully processed it yet.  

“So how can you tell, “Finn asked, “if a being is Light Side or Dark Side?”

“Sometimes it’s obvious, but most of the time, there are no signs, only clues,” Leia hated how this was going to sound, but it was the truth. “You learn who they are by watching what they do.”

“Watching?” Finn found it incredulous; to him, a defense-only point of view was what the First Order would call an easy victory. The First Order considered everyone a potential threat and always seized the initiative when one presented itself; that was the primary reason for its rapid expansion _._ The strategy of “wait and see” would never succeed against the First Order, and when he got back to the Resistance, he’d make sure they understood that fact no matter what it took to get them to listen. “Okay, then what are the clues?”

“Yes, those…” Leia sighed as she said it; her explanation would not please him. “Many, but not all, Force-users can sense each other’s presence, and once you have some experience, you will be able to recognize others like yourself when you encounter them.  That’s your first clue.”

“How quickly will I learn to do that?”

“There’s no way to know; everyone is different.”

“Great,” Finn grumbled. Being able to spot other Force-sensitives sounded like a valuable skill to possess; it was probably how the Sith had spotted him back on the Resistance transport. And before that…

“General, I have to ask you a question; it’s a hard question, but I really need an answer to it.”

“Ask your question.”

“Would someone like Kylo Ren recognize me on sight?”

His question made Leia’s heart ache, but it was not unexpected; she’d heard that Finn had been asking about his injury and whether Ben had deliberately spared his life or not.  

“Yes, Finn,” she said, “he would have recognized you.”

That explained the how of the first time, but not the why.  Now Finn needed to know about the second time.

“And the fight? Was I lucky or was I spared?”

“I think you already know the answer to that.”

His General was right, he already knew. The First Order had taught him that superior ability and experience would always win - unless for some reason, it held back. What happened in the snow that night was a hideous joke; he’d held a lightsaber in his hand exactly once before, but he was enraged and terrified into mindless action, so he called out someone who could have swatted him dead instantly with a gesture of his hand. But instead of swatting him dead, Ren proceeded to give him a savage lesson in lightsaber fighting until he’d made that one lucky strike and things got serious; then it was over in seconds. And he’d have a mark on his back for life to remind him of it. Now all Finn needed to know was…

“Why?”

“I’m sorry, Finn,” Leia shook her head, “I don’t know.”

At that moment, the comlink sounded. It was Dar Noaa, who had closed himself up inside his, now Leia’s, quarters hours earlier with no explanation beyond “I need to think about this.” Apparently, he was done thinking now.

“I’m ready for young Finn,” Dar Noaa’s voice confirmed it. “Please bring him here.”

 

The door was already open when they arrived; Dar Noaa was sitting at a small fold-down worktable on which he’d spread out a collection of odd-looking objects.  Leia spotted a Kyber crystal among the objects, and she realized what they were seeing; these were the dissembled parts of a lightsaber.

“Sit down,” Dar Noaa pointed to the sleep platform and waited until they were both settled and paying attention before continuing, then addressed himself to Finn. “I think I understand what happened to you with the grey faces, young Finn; I believe your adventure with the boxes of dirt was a quickly-composed simulation of what you would have done had you been a Jedi youngling,” he looked at Leia, “which is interesting in itself,” then he looked back at Finn, who was staring intently at him now. “Perhaps each box contained a crystal, perhaps only one box contained a crystal; the objective was for you to find “your” crystal, just as you would have done on Ilum. Do you have your crystal with you?”

Finn dug into his pocket and pulled his crystal out, dropped it onto the open palm of his other hand and offered it to Dar Noaa.

“No,” Dar Noaa put a hand up, “You do not pass your Kyber crystal around, and certainly not to *me*; at least not until we know who you are.”

“Who I am?” Finn couldn’t help fingering the crystal in his hand as he spoke, “This crystal can tell me who I am?”

“Not in the way you’d want,” Dar Noaa remembered Finn’s quest to learn about his family and wished he’d said it differently. “What it can tell you is who you are with respect to the Force. Tradition says that you construct your own lightsaber, but we have neither the resources nor the time for that; so what I’ve done here is provide a quickly-composed “kit”…”

“You never told me,” Leia said, “that you had lightsaber training.”

“Back then, everyone had lightsaber training,” Dar Noaa replied, “whether they wanted it or not. “

“You took your lightsaber apart,” Finn seemed touched by the gesture, “for *me*?”

“For the time being, yes,” Dar Noaa looked down at the parts in front of him, then selected his Kyber crystal, and held it up to examine it. “I had little need for it then, and these days, I have even less.” He looked at Leia, who now knew why. “When we return to the Resistance, Finn can construct one of his own. Perhaps your brother…” He noticed that Finn was staring intently at him again and this time, he reacted. “Young Finn, what *exactly* are you attempting to do?”

“Uh,” Finn stalled for a second, but then realized that the only smart option was the truth. “General Organa said that most Force-sensitives could recognize others on sight; and you say I’m a Force-sensitive, so I thought I’d… try.”

“You mean like *this*?” Dar Noaa made a slight, quick gesture with his empty hand; Finn felt the impact inside his head and grimaced. Satisfied that Finn had gotten the message, Dar Noaa released him. “One thing at a time, young Finn; right now, I require your attention to be on this table and these parts and how to assemble them,” then he rose from the chair and stepped away from the table, “Get to it.”

Then he turned and walked out of the room.

Finn looked to Leia, but she had nothing to offer beyond an encouraging smile; lightsabers were Luke’s world, not hers.  Aside from a few simple exercises and techniques, she had no understanding of them at all. Finn moved to the empty chair and sat; his first thought was to place his crystal in the exact spot where Dar Noaa had placed his own before.  Then he studied how the Sith had laid the component parts out on the table, and he sensed that there was a logic to the pattern; if he started with *this* particular part…

 

Seeing that Finn was already completely absorbed in the project before him, Leia quietly slipped out the door, closed it behind her and followed Dar Noaa, who was heading down the corridor to the quarters he now shared with Dar Na.

“Noah,” she called; he stopped, but didn’t turn around, so she had to step ahead of him and turn, “What did you just do to Finn?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” she asked. “You hit him so hard, *I* felt it!”

“If young Finn wants to survive, he must learn that, when it comes to the Force, naïve ability is no match for *experience*,” Dar Noaa replied. “Far too many, Sith and Jedi alike, died before their time because they never learned that lesson. And *you*,” his voice became hard and critical, “must learn to be very careful what you say to him, because he is a total innocent – and a bit thick-headed, too, because he obviously didn’t learn *anything* from the lesson your son gave him.”

Leia was silent; he’d done it again, told her the unvarnished truth in the worst way possible.  He sighed loudly and started walking again, but she kept up with him.

“Understood,” Leia dismissed that subject for now; she was angry, but she understood. “But how do you expect him to construct a working lightsaber with absolutely no guidance?”

“Oh, that,” a slight grin appeared on Dar Noaa’s face, “Finn knows what to do; I put it in his head while he was trying his little Jedi mind probe. It will take him some time to figure everything out, but he’ll be fine. “

“So *that’s* what you did to him,” Leia saw it as a confession. “You do know that it *hurts* when you do that, right?”

“Of course; I feel it, too.” They’d reached the doorway to Dar Noaa’s room; the door slid open automatically. “Come inside, and we’ll talk about it…”

Leia complied, and they disappeared behind the closing door.

 

At the other end of the corridor, in the cockpit, there was a shared groan and some eye-rolling, too. Poe and Dar Na had been lounging in the seats there, not doing much beyond occasionally checking the endless stream of data that the ship displayed while in flight.

“Great,” Poe complained loudly; “‘Mom and Dad’ are gonna fight.  Again.”

General Organa and Dar Noaa’s supposedly private “talks” were part of the routine aboard the Visitor; and not overhearing those private little talks when they became heated was an impossible task for the younger members of the crew. It was Poe who started referring to the General and the Sith as “Mom and Dad”, and Dar Na seemed to find it amusing, so the term stuck.

The circumstances of the mission required the two of them to spend a great deal of time working together with the ship, and they were also the ones left behind to watch the ship when the others were out so they would be available in case an unplanned pick-up was required, as it had been on APU523. Their relationship was tense at first, but after a period of uncomfortable adjustment, they managed to find some common ground for conversation, and after that, the situation improved. Dar Na was a lot younger than Poe, but he had much more hands-on combat experience than the pilot, and a very different perspective on what it was. For Poe, combat was almost a game; he rarely witnessed the destruction he delivered because he was already looking toward the next target, but for Dar Na, it was intensely personal; when Dar Na stated that he had looked every being he ever killed in the eyes, Poe believed him.  And despite his youth, Dar Na possessed the maturity and common sense that Poe did not, and Poe admired him for that.

"It would seem so.” Dar Na replied dully.

“What is it with those two, anyway?” Poe grumbled.

 

Dar Na considered Poe’s question for a long time before answering; he had little experience in conversation with beings from the Republic and found it difficult to anticipate how they might react to what he said. Poe was human; he wanted the truth that he wanted to hear, not necessarily the truth by itself. From Dar Na’s point of view, that explained a lot about Dar Noaa and the Lady Leia Vader; neither of them was ready or willing to accept the truth and just get on with it.

“It’s… ” he borrowed an expression that humans often used when speaking about relationships, “… *complicated*.” Since the term “complicated” described every relationship Poe Dameron ever had, he understood Dar Na’s meaning instantly.

“I thought I was the only one seeing that,” he confided.

“You are not alone, little pilot,” Dar Na reassured him, “everyone sees it but them.”

 

 

……………………

 

 

_It was sunrise; the dry cold of the desert night would quickly give way to merciless heat, but at the moment, the air was comfortable and the dunes were painted in the soft pastel colors of approaching dawn. He was watching the girl with the staff prepare for the day’s work; but he was not alone, Lor San Tekka was standing beside him, watching, too…_

_“She’s a lovely child,” Tekka said. “As fearless as she is beautiful - and powerful; like the sands of the desert beneath her, she’s a force of Nature, something to be treasured and loved.”_

_“I know.”_

_“Then know this, too, Kylo Ren,” Tekka’s voice became ominous, “Snoke will never stop looking for you; and when he finds you, he will find her. You can expect only death, but his plan for her is something much worse.”_

_“What plan?”_

_“She will become you; she will take your place at his feet, doing his bidding,” Tekka’s face paled with every word he spoke, “and there is something else that she will do for him; something that you cannot.”_

_Ren took his eyes off the girl to look at Tekka._

_“If you,” Tekka gazed downward at his chest; there was a flash of red and it split open, spilling the old man’s heart and lungs out, “… won’t save yourself…”  his organs fell to the sand and were sucked down into it, “… save… the… girl…”_

_Then Tekka himself slipped into the sand and was gone._

Shaken and trembling, Ren sat up before he was fully awake. Except for Rey’s rolled-up pants-pillow, he was alone; the entry door was open and the corridor was already warm with hot, humid air, meaning it was well into day outside.  It also meant that Rey had not been present for, or a party to, the dream; Ren could hear her outside, singing quietly to herself, probably collecting clothes from nightwash to bring inside to dry.  Only seconds later, she appeared at the open doorway with her arms full of damp clothes.

“You’re awake!” she greeted him with happy relief. “I was starting to think you were going to sleep all day.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she set the clothes down, then walked over and sat down beside him. “You had a rough night.”

“I remember.”

“What happened?”

He remembered every second of it; but he had no desire to tell her. The first dream, the one that took him out into the corridor, had been a horrible look back. Now that he could no longer pretend that he didn’t know Snoke’s true agenda, his mind had forced him to review his life; how every event that brought him to this moment in time had been the result of slow and patient manipulation.  All of it, everything, no matter how unimportant, had been planned out in advance; his only role in his own life had been to fall for every trick, step into every trap, and believe every lie, which he had done every single time without fail.

And it all led back to Snope.

Supreme Leader was correct when he called Kylo Ren perfect; he was the perfect assassin, an eager and willing conspirator in the destruction of Ben Solo. And then Kylo Ren had been destroyed, too; whatever he was died with his Knights.  All that remained now was a remnant, poorly spliced shreds of both that when put together was neither of them.  Ren remembered everything both of them had done; and he knew who was accountable for all of it now.  He needed an answer for Rey, but he saw no reason to put any of that miserable reality onto her.

“Over tired,” he said, “I did too much yesterday.”

“You do too much every day,” Rey was not taking his words at face value; she knew that what she’d witnessed was in no way ordinary. “How was last night any different?” And what are the red sparks all about?”

“You saw red sparks?”

“Stung my fingers.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I don’t need you to be sorry, Ren; I need you to tell me.”

There was little he could tell her about it; he’d only just discovered Force-lightning on the personal level, and it almost killed him. In his dream, he was confronting Master Luke again; watching his uncle manipulating him into the trap that resulted in the worst pain he’d ever felt. Life energy wasn’t just being sucked out of him; it was being ripped from his body by gigantic invisible claws.

None of his teachers ever talked about that, probably because they didn’t know about it; and anyone who could actually produce and control Force-lightning was long gone. As far as Ren knew, the last being to witness Force-lightning was Luke Skywalker when he confronted Emperor Palpatine, and that was on the receiving end. His uncle seldom talked of it, and when he did, he would only say that it was “unpleasant”.  Unpleasant was as good a description as any, for there truly was no adequate word to describe that pain.

It was an unsettling coincidence that Luke Skywalker was now also the first being to witness Force-lightning as manifested by Kylo Ren; but there was no way Ren was going to tell Rey about that. When he staggered back down the stone steps that night, Ren was positive that Luke was dead; but later, as he struggled to walk to his transport, he sensed that his uncle had survived, but he could do nothing about it. 

This Force-lightning ability was as terrifying as it was new; had it not been for the girl, Ren would have died that night from energy depletion. He didn’t know enough about it to anticipate or control it and that meant there was yet another way he was dangerous for her to be around, especially since she kept trying to see him as not a monster.

“It’s called Force-lightning,” Ren was determined to keep things simple if he could. “It’s something… new. I don’t understand it myself,” he looked at her hands, “Did I hurt you?”

“Not really,” she answered. “It snapped at me, like a power pack when you pull it out too fast,” she modeled her hands for him, back then palms. “See?”

Seeing her perfect fingers was a puzzling relief; what did that mean? Did it mean that he wasn’t deadly to the touch at the time, or that she was so strong with the Force that it couldn’t affect her, or that she had pulled the ability out of him like she always did and now possessed it, too? It could be all, or it could be none, or it could be something he couldn’t even imagine; it was making his head ache. And he was really, really hungry…

“Sit here,” she said, and then she got up. “I’ll go get you something to eat.”

She hadn’t been eavesdropping in his head; making him eat was just something she did. She always knew what he needed; even when he didn’t.  He was watching her walk away, enjoying it, when the dream-memory hit him:

 _“As fearless as she is beautiful,”_ Tekka’s words echoed in his mind, “ _and powerful; like the sands of the desert beneath her, she’s a force of Nature, something to be treasured and loved.”_

_“I know.”_

Not compassion, not awe, not admiration; no, this was a horrific revelation.

He loved her!

 _“If you won’t save yourself…_ _Save. The. Girl.”_

Ren knew how to save her; her best, perhaps her only, chance to escape Snoke’s grasp would be with Luke Skywalker, not with him.  The Jedi Master would hide her; he would teach her what she needed to survive and then he would let her go her own way. There was only one thing to do; he had to give her back.

 

 

………………………………..

 

 

Dar Noaa considered himself very patient for a Sith, which was a good thing because otherwise, in the years since he’d become a permanent resident of the Republic, more than one of its citizens would have found themselves missing their heads; and the one who did lose his head was never traced back to Dar Noaa, so he could excuse himself for that one lapse in judgment.  

There probably would have been a much bigger body count if Leia hadn’t drilled him so often in how not to be Sith. Not to be Sith required staying calm in the face of astonishing stupidity; not to be Sith required keeping his thoughts to himself, and when he had to share those thoughts, not to be Sith required carefully polishing the truth before speaking it, so it would be shiny no matter what; most of all, not to be Sith required the continuous denial of almost everything that actually mattered to a Sith.  

She would say “Don’t be Sith about it, Noah”, which always translated into “No”.

Now she was sitting there telling him how he should approach teaching young Finn the ways of the Force, something she totally rejected learning herself, and he did not want to hear it, but he also did not want to be Sith about it.

“I’m not saying you’re wrong,” Dar Noaa used his not to be Sith tone of voice, “I’m simply saying that I would prefer to use my own judgement; and my judgment is being reserved until we see which Side he’s from.”

“You said he’s Light Side.”

“No, I said *they* think he’s Light Side,” His crystal was still in his hand; he was rubbing it with his fingers as he spoke. “I have no opinion; and we will know soon enough anyway; he hasn’t had time to imprint the crystal fully, but it will reveal his nature - if there is anything to reveal – when he tests it. We should find someplace to land before he does that.”

“Understood,” Leia started to turn to leave. “I’ll get Poe on it right away.”

“Leia?”

She stopped and turned around.

“I want you to know…” He paused to consider what he was going to say, “… that there may be difficult times ahead…”

“There always are.”

“… and I may say or do some things that will displease you…”

“You always do,” She smiled as she said it. “Is there anything else?”

“No.”

That being said, she turned and left him.

The room felt sad and empty without her, and Dar Noaa wondered if maybe it was time he stopped trying not to be Sith. He’d tried it her way; he’d been understanding and patient, but things were different now. The incident on APU523 made him recognize the fact that there was no more time to waste trying not to be Sith; seeing her blood had made everything crystal clear: from now on, he would be Dar Noaa the Sith again. Dar Noaa the Sith knew exactly what he wanted; he knew what to do about it, and he knew when to do it. She was the one, always the one, the only one; she had chained herself to the wall and he would rescue her from that, just as she had rescued him; and the time was now.

 

 

…………………………

 

 

The new open space was no longer empty; the extra heavy rain the night before had been too much too fast, debris clogged its outlets, causing the water to back up, filling the crater and turning it into a small circular pond.  The water was dark and smelly; there was a scent in the air that only an insect could love, but that was often the way things got started.  It was late afternoon, but the nightly rain clouds had not yet arrived, so for a few hours, the pond was a place of peace and solitude.

 

Ren had been distracted and distant all morning, and after Rey fed him at midday, he disappeared altogether.  Since there was only one path and one destination, when she decided to go find him, it was not a difficult search. She found him at the crater’s edge, sitting on one of the fallen tree trunks that now loosely fenced the new open space, which was now the new pond. The view looked familiar, but it wasn’t until Rey sat on the tree trunk beside Ren that she remembered why.  He gave a side glance to acknowledge her arrival, and then returned his gaze to the pond.

“Is this…?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, it is hot, and it is wet, and it does smell really bad.”

“Yes,” he said, “I know.”

“Does this kind of thing happen often?”

“Every damn day.”

“Will you tell me where we are now?”

“It’s called Dagobah.”

“Dagobah; I’ve never heard of it. What made you choose it? It’s not exactly a welcoming planet.”

“No, but it’s a safe one; Luke Skywalker once spent time here, a long time ago, when he needed a place to hide.”

 “Really?”

“Uh huh, only a few of us know that; he said it was a place of sanctuary.” Ren remembered how he would ask if they could visit the special and secret place, but his uncle would always put him off, saying it wasn’t time yet. “It’s a gigantic sponge, no good for colonization or exploitation; there’s nothing here but plants and animals, and it’s easy for one, or two, Force –sensitives to get lost in the combined energy of all this life. There was a powerful Jedi named Yoda who hid here for years without being detected; then Luke Skywalker found refuge here; and now we’re here, too, only we can’t stay much longer.”

“I know you’re getting stronger every day,” Rey advised him, “but you are in no condition to do much more than walk to this pond and back again. I don’t think…”

“Believe what I tell you; we can’t stay here”

 “Where will we go?”

“Deep into the Unknown Regions,” he looked up at the gathering clouds on the horizon, “perhaps all the way out to the Edge; maybe it’s thinner out there...”

“What’s thinner?”

“The Force,” There was bitterness in his voice as he said the word. “You’ll have to go as far as you can as fast as you can; find yourself a world where they’ve never heard of the Force and then you forget about it, too,” He turned his head and looked at her. “You forget about the Force; forget about Luke Skywalker; forget about *me*...” he looked away, back to the pond, “... and then maybe you’ll be safe.”

“You keep saying ‘you’.”

“I won’t be going with you,” He breathed out the words like a sigh. “Snoke will never stop looking for me; it’s too dangerous for you to be with me.”

“Where will you go?”

“I’m going back.”

“What?” Her voice almost cracked as she asked the question. “*Why*?”

“It’s the only way to make things right.”

“Make things *right*?” She asked loudly, not even trying to hide what she was feeling. “What things could you make *right* by going back? They tried to kill you; if you go back, they *will* kill you and all this…” she spread her arms, framing the open space pond and them within, “… all this…” He could sense her eyes filling with tears as she spoke, “... would have been for *nothing*.”

He didn’t know what to say; how to explain without telling her something she would never be able to forget.  He needed to know that when she walked away from him for the last time, she would not look back. But he had a simple explanation to give her; the truth.

“I have to go back,” he said quietly, “it’s where I belong.”

“No it’s not!” she protested. “I know you; you’re not one of them; you never were one of them; they just made you believe that you were. You need time to think, you need time to find yourself again; you need...”

“You *know* me?” He jerked his head around and glared at her. “You have a few visions and you think you know *me*? All you saw was what somebody wanted you to see; you didn’t see me, not the *real* me,” He leaned over, his face coming close to hers. “You want to know me? Let me tell you who I am; there was an old man on Jakku; his name was Lor San Tekka - did you know him?”

“No.”

“Well, I did know him; all my life, I knew him. I came to Jakku to retrieve a map and he was the one who had it, but he refused to give it up. That old man was once my hero and I cut him in two with my lightsaber because *that’s* what I do. That’s what *I* do.  I killed that old man and I felt *nothing*.”

“That’s not true,” her face changed, she looked more angry than upset now.  “You felt something, you’re feeling something right now; I can see it in your eyes.”

“No.”

It wasn’t exactly a lie; at the time it happened Ren really felt nothing but anger and after that, he felt numb; detached, as if he was a spectator to one of his own nightmares. That Resistance pilot showed up and what should have been a quick and easy extraction became part of the nightmare when the first thing he saw in the pilot’s mind  - and the last thing he ever expected - was his mother‘s face!  It stopped him cold, but he couldn’t react, that would reveal his weakness to his First Order subordinates and they would report it back to Hux; so he stalled for time by having the pilot packed off to the transport.  The flight back to the Finalizer would give him time to get over it, but then, as he was walking toward it to leave, that Stormtrooper, FN2187, chose that moment to wake up. Ren had never witnessed an Awakening; it was a millisecond of profound beauty; it fascinated him and he used the next few seconds to have a look at just who this FN2187 was.  What he saw impressed and troubled him; he should have acted immediately, but a faint voice in his head whispered “No” and he dismissed the idea and left.  Later, during the trip back to the Finalizer, when he was alone in his private quarters, Tekka ambushed him; a flood of memories drowned him and the old, forgotten pain returned.

 _Damn Tekka!_ He thought. _Why did it have to be *you*? What were you doing on Jakku?_

Rey was watching him closely, reading his eyes, sensing his pain. Unable to resist the urge to share it, to help him deal with it, she reached out, taking him by surprise, getting inside.

“I see you... ” she whispered, “I see him... How old he’s become…”

“Get out of my head.”

“He’s old and sick, he’s dying; you sense it,” Her words cut into him. “You know he won’t give up the map. You know he will be tortured for it; first, by them and when they fail to get it from him... and they will fail, you know it... by *you*…” He was powerless against her, not resisting at all. “… now, he’s baiting you, reminding you, he’s offering you a way out...” She caught her breath, as if the image horrified her, but then she continued. “... a single stroke; sudden painless death, a few seconds of surprise and fear and it’s over…”

“Yes.”

Exhausted and regretful, Rey released him.  They sat there in silence, each of them wounded by the other in different ways but with the same result. Rey recovered first.

“You killed a dying old man to save him from you,” she said. “That’s who you are, Ren. You don’t have to hide it from me. ”

“What I am is ... a monster,” He used her words against her; but she was right; “monster” was the definition of Kylo Ren. He’d earned the name in a thousand ways; he owned it.  Now he would use it to push her away. “You said so yourself. Do you remember why?”

She remembered; she looked at him as if he’d just slapped her.

“Don’t...”

“You watched me. You saw what I did... ”

“Don’t...”

“... and if I had it to do over, I would do the exact... same... thing... again.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

He’d hurt her badly; she was crying. He wanted to hold her and pet her and tell her he was so, so sorry; but he didn’t move.  If he showed the slightest weakness now, she would see right through him. She sniffed back her tears and got up from the tree trunk, then stood there as if she was waiting for him to say something; but there was nothing to say. She would hate him forever, but she would live; he was going to save her. When she realized that they were done here, she left. 

 

Once Ren was sure she was not coming back, he closed his eyes and touched the Force. 

The chaos there was what he expected, it had blocked him from reaching his mother before, but now he knew a way to create a conduit through it. He had Snoke to thank for that; it was one of several new abilities the Supreme Leader had taught him to complete his training. It was intended to ensure that Ren would always be able to contact his master from anywhere, anytime, and he would be using it for that purpose soon enough. He was the last Knight of Ren, and there was one last mission.

The message he sent was brief; but it would tell Luke Skywalker everything he needed to know:

 

**_We’re *here*. Come and get her._ **

 

..............................

 


	17. Chapter 17

 

-17-

 

The planet Dagobah had two seasons: wet and wetter.  The wetter season arrived with the suddenness of a supernova; one night’s rain would be hard, then the next night’s rain would be a deluge, followed by night after night of deluge. The open space pond came into existence just as the wetter season was arriving, and its clogged outlets had become compacted by the pressure of water trying to escape, so now there was absolutely no place for the water to go but up. It poured down the path and splashed into the pond and quickly drowned the crater, the fallen trees, the brush; all disappeared into the muddy water. Then the water backed up into the path, too, rendering the open space inaccessible.

Inside the Ren Transport, things were quiet. Both of its occupants had retreated to their respective sleeping quarters quite early, but both had difficulty getting to sleep. Rey spent a great deal of time crying; partly because he’d forced her to remember things she wanted to forget and partly because she didn’t understand why he had turned on her so suddenly. Ren spent a great deal of time reciting the Code because it was the only thing he could think of that might block out all the other thoughts that were spinning in his head, confusing him. Eventually exhaustion and the endless drumming of the rain on the ship’s hull came to their rescue.

 

_They were standing at the edge of a beautiful lake. The water was clear and peaceful; it was busy, too. There were swimming things and flying things, and water plants that filled the air with sweet scents._

_“Is this what it will be someday?” she asked._

_“Difficult to see,” he replied, “The future is always in motion; there’s no way to be sure.”_

_“Who’s dream is this, mine or yours?” she asked._

_“I don’t know,” he replied._

_“Maybe it’s our dream.”_

_“No.”_

_“You don’t know that; you just said the future is always in motion.”_

_“Can we change the subject?”_

_“All right, I’m sorry; down at the pond today, I shouldn’t have trespassed,” she offered her apology. “I thought I was helping; you were in so much pain over that old man...”_

_“Tekka,” he reminded her. “His name was Lor San Tekka.”_

_“Tekka... oh!” Her face changed, her eyes got wide. “Tekka’s *dead*!”_

_“I know,” he replied quietly. “I killed him.”_

_“Not that,” she grabbed his arm, “Tekka’s *dead*” - that was the first thing *she* said!”_

_“Who said?”_

_“Maz Katana!” She was excited. “Ren, we have to wake up right now!”_

They met in the corridor.

“Remember, the first time you came to the island, you were looking for us,” Rey was speaking fast, trying to share as much as she could as fast as she could, “but we weren’t there; that’s because Maz Katana *sent* for Master Luke.”

Maz Katana was a name from when Ben Solo was very young. She was like a stern but loving aunty; she always had advice to give, but that advice always came with a huge dose of affection. Her visits were rare, though, usually Ben would accompany his father to visit her; until one day she and Han Solo had words and Ben never saw her again after that.  

“Maz Katana knew where he was?”

“Yes!”

“How long had she known that?”

“I don’t know,” Rey didn’t think it was important. “When we arrived there; we were looking for her, but she found us first; and she said...” Rey paused; she wanted to get it right, “Are you lost?”... and we turned around... and then she said to Master Luke, “Tekka’s dead”.

“She would want him to know.”

“No, Ren, she wasn’t sharing it; she was stabbing it into him like a knife; I could hear it in her voice. There was something about how she said it that made it sound like the end of a long story; and I could see that Master Luke knew what that story was,” Rey remembered that clearly. “And after that,” she continued, “Maz and Master Luke kept arguing; and guess who’s name kept coming up over and over again?”

“Who’s?”

“*Yours*... well, Ben Solo’s, actually; and then Maz spent a lot of time telling me all about you.”

“What did she tell you about me?”

“She said you were as Skywalker as they come.”

“Really?” Ren’s expression brightened a bit.

“It wasn’t a complement.”

“Oh.”

“She also said you were good at hiding.”

Rey’s comment brought back a pleasant memory and Ren smiled slightly. It was true; when Ben Solo did not want to be found, he was very good at it; no one could find him, except for Maz; she would always find him. And then she would lecture him, saying “hiding is never the answer”. That was probably what she’d have to say now, if she knew where he was. The memories were becoming painful, so Ren decided to turn the conversation in a different direction.

“Did she say anything about why Tekka was on Jakku?”

“No.”

There was a lull; they both became aware of and uncomfortable about the silence. Ren knew the smart thing to do was say thank you for the information and goodnight and then go back to his quarters, but knowing and doing were two different things. Time was running out, the message had been sent, and depending on how far it had to travel, Luke Skywalker might show up anytime; tomorrow, or the next day, or even weeks from now; but still it was running out.

The Code did not expressly forbid personal conversations, probably because such occasions were extremely rare, but it did expect those conversations to have practical purpose. She didn’t look as if she wanted him to leave her, and he didn’t want to go, so if he just could find an acceptable topic, he wouldn’t have to. Then he realized he had one; and it was something he was very interested in.

“Tell me about Jakku.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

 

 

...................

 

 

Being alone was something Luke Skywalker missed very much; it was the only time he could find complete peace of mind. There were only a few places aboard the Resistance transport where Luke Skywalker could find any solitude; one was the Millennium Falcon and the other was a small, seldom-used-anymore observation dome. There was a time when the tiny dome served as a spotter’s post, but after the war, technology improved so quickly that visual watches quickly became obsolete and the domes fell into disuse. These days, they served no purpose other than a place where a being could pretend to be alone for a while, but since that was something most beings needed, the dome was retained and maintained.

Always craving solitude was the price of becoming one with the Force; it opened up everything everywhere, but when assaulted by that everything everywhere, it could be overwhelmingly depressing. Life was strong and relentless, but so was death; beings could be kind and loving, but they could also be brutal and cruel. By the time Luke had finally decided to stop his search and retire to the island of Ahch’to, he was simply tired of it all.

There was plenty on the island to investigate, the ancient Jedi Temple alone had kept him occupied; and in his travels, he had amassed a collection of rare and informative – and deeply disturbing – artifacts and writings that begged for repeated study. It was always his intention to get word to Leia of where he was, but somehow he never quite got around to doing it.

Every time Tekka would visit, he would remind Luke that his retirement was believed to be his disappearance, and it weighed heavily on his already over-burdened sister. Luke would listen and promise to do something about it, but in the end Tekka would leave with one more planet to add to his map and not much else. Usually, they would examine and discuss Luke’s discoveries, sit by the fire and recollect tales from the old days; but the last time Tekka visited, he came to tell Luke that he had a lead that would be taking him to Jakku for perhaps a long time. He would not give Luke the details, but he did say that it might be important to the future of the galaxy. 

Now Tekka was dead, so Luke would never know what it was that he found so intriguing about Jakku; and it was a bitter irony that his old friend had died there at the hands of the boy he’d always been so devoted to.

Luke slipped into the spotter seat and looked out into the vast darkness. He wondered where the boy was right now; he wondered if the girl was with him. Then the message arrived; it hit him like a blast of tropical wind; he felt the heat and humidity and then there was the smell...

 

**_We’re *here*. Come get her._**

 

Dagobah!

Yoda’s old refuge was someplace Luke hadn’t even considered as a place to look for Ben, he believed that Ben had taken the girl back to Snoke and the First Order. But now what Chewy had said about signs of a firefight took on meaning; what if something had gone wrong and Ben needed a place to hide? Luke had told Ben about Dagobah being a sanctuary since he was a small boy; it made sense that Ben would choose to go there if things had gotten desperate.

Luke wondered just how desperate things were; Chewy said the beach had all the signs of a slaughter. Perhaps some of the Knights of Ren didn’t make it off the island with him. That would make rescuing the girl easier.  And then there was the why. Was this message a challenge or an appeal? 

The answer could wait until he got there, because either way, he was going. 

 

…………....

 

 

It was quiet aboard the Visitor.

 

Poe was sleeping  in his seat in the cockpit while Dar Na kept watch.

Finn was slumped over the worktable, sound asleep, holding on to the partially assembled lightsaber hilt as if it was a prized toy.

Liea Organa knew that because she had gone to her sleeping quarters to check on his progress and discovered him sleeping there. She had no wish to disturb the young man, so she backed out of the room and closed the door behind her, but surrendering her space to Finn meant she had few choices where to go. The Visitor was not a large ship; space was precious, so it had no communal space whatsoever; everything was either fold-down or slide-out access in individual quarters. Leia didn’t want to invade the young men’s space; so that left only one place to go. 

She tapped the access panel on the door to Dar Noaa’s room and it blinked acceptance, then the door slid open to admit her. He was sitting on a sleep platform with what appeared to be a vintage notebook in his hands. Several more notebooks were piled carelessly on the floor at his feet.

“Am I disturbing you?” she asked.

“Not at all,” he replied, “I welcome your company.”

Leia walked to the sleep platform and sat beside him.

“What’s all this?” she asked, examining the pile.

“My notes.”

“You kept notes? On *paper*? *Handwritten*?”

“These are from my first days as a servant of the Republic,” Dar Noaa replied, ignoring how she had questioned his method. “I had to learn a great deal in a very short time, so I made observations and took notes about things I found interesting or important. I was hoping to find something that could be useful with young Finn.”

“Any luck?”

“Not so far,” he answered. “I was just reading an entry about your brother.”

“Can I hear it?”

“Of course,” he fingered his way back to a starting point, “LS; observed from distance in the company of his sister. The Force is very strong with him, but he makes no effort to either broadcast or hide his power. Instead, it simply flows through him in a manner as natural as breathing, and invisible to all but those who know to look for it. Aside from his manner of dress, nothing about him advertises ‘Jedi’, either; this one could blend into the crowd and vanish with nothing more than a change of cloak.”

“True,” Leia was impressed with Noah’s insight; when Luke wanted to vanish, he did so without leaving a trace; or a message saying goodbye. “Where were we at the time?”

“Oh,” Dar Noaa didn’t want to tell her that he’d seen her by chance that day and simply followed them, “some public event; nothing special, I didn’t even make note of it.”

“Is there more?”

“Yes,” he referred back to the notebook, “There is clearly much more to LS than meets the eye. And…” he paused, reading ahead, seeing that the next entry was all about her, he closed the book; it clapped softly. “...that’s all I had to say about him.”

“Interesting,” Leia said, “That is almost exactly what he had to say about you.”

“Me?”

“That day you two met.”

“That was awkward, wasn’t it?’ Dar Noaa remembered the event; Leia could not explain what he was doing there without revealing her involvement with A&A, something that her brother would certainly have found much more disturbing than finding a Sith in her parlor.

Dar Noaa got his first lesson in Luke’s power that day, too; the Jedi had reached out and looked into Dar Noaa’s mind; but since the Jedi Master was only interested in whether this Sith was a danger to his sister, the inquisition was quick and relatively painless, and not even rude under the circumstances. Both of them had enough experience to give one another the respect – and distance – they deserved. “Do I want to know what he said?”

 “Most of it, *no*,” Leia smiled, teasing. “He thought that you were ‘more than meets the eye’, too.”

 “Typical Jedi,” Dar Noaa laughed, Jedi insight was renowned among the Sith for its vagueness. But it did raise a question. “And what do you think?”

 “Then or now?”

 “Both.”

 “Then…” Leia almost giggled as she said it, “I thought you were more trouble than you were worth.”

 “And now?”

 “Now?” Her expression changed from amusement to uncertainty, “Oh, I don’t know…”

 “Yes. You. Do.”

He looked her right in the eyes as he said it and he saw that she knew what he meant. They’d been playing around it for years; sharing moments when they felt so drawn to one another that the only way to avoid making it real was to fight; sharing moments when they could feel one another across a room or a street or a world; and then always sharing the moment when she would put up the wall between them.

Han Solo.

Dar Noaa never met Han Solo; mostly because Han Solo was never there to meet. Leia would always mention him, but those little reminders that she had a husband never included actually meeting him. If Leia could be honest with herself, she would have to admit that her marriage was a part-time relationship at best.

It was none of his business, of course; and he decided early on to take her as she came to him, as a benefactor and then as a friend.

It was the friend Dar Noaa who precipitated their last disagreement, the one that ended with her telling him not to come back, by suggesting that enough time had passed since she’d seen or heard from him and she should consider letting go. And recent events changed nothing; the reality was that Han Solo never did return to Leia; she merely caught up to him on Takadona.

He was dead now, so what might have happened had he lived was irrelevant now, too.

The way Dar Noaa saw it, the years that Leia had wasted being chained to the wall waiting for him to come back to her were mourning enough; she was free now and now might be all the time they had.

 He reached for her.

 “Noah,” she whispered, “Don’t... “

 He had her in his arms now.

 “It’s too soon…” she said.

 “But it’s not too late,” he answered.

 “We’re not children anymore…”

 “Exactly.”

 He pulled her close and kissed her.

 

All the years spent on discipline and denial came to nothing; Leia’s body betrayed her instantly. When he moved away from her lips and began kissing her neck, she protested weakly; all she could manage was a breathless “Noah”, but he was listening to her body now and not her words. It was like nothing she’d ever experienced before; her body was selling her out; every place he touched responded, talking to him in silent whispers, leading him, showing him what she wanted next. And now she could feel his body calling to her, leading her, showing her what he wanted. Her mind was mush; she wasn’t thinking; she was done thinking; she didn’t want to think.  All she wanted was him.

 

……....….

 

In the cockpit, Poe Dameron’s slumber was disturbed by the sound of Dar Na rising from the seat next to him. Poe rolled over and looked; Dar Na had gone to the entry and was standing there, his back against the wall and his eyes looking out to the corridor beyond.  Moving his gaze from Dar Na to the waveform, Poe saw that Viz had located three candidate planets for them to land on, one of which was coming up fast.

 “Hey, Nah,” he pointed to the display. “I think we have a winner.”

 “How long,” Dar Na asked without looking, “until we will be in range?”

 “Maybe ten minutes.”

 “Let that one pass.”

 Poe was surprised; this was not what he expected to hear.

 “Okay,” he replied, “but this one’s on you when Dad finds out.”

 

 

……….

 

 

In another part of the galaxy; nighttime had come and that meant rain.

It was very late; far past the usual time when they would say goodnight and go to their respective sleeping quarters, but Rey and Ren were sitting in the corridor with their backs against the wall while she tried to answer his questions about Jakku.  Ren was relentless; he’d been asking her questions all day and many of his questions went unanswered because she had no answer. The embarrassing truth was that Rey didn’t know much about her world beyond the sphere of Unkar Plutt’s influence.  It was known locally that she was under his “protection”, so she was safe there; no one dared to cheat or molest her because that would bring the wrath of Unkar Plutt down upon then; and his wrath almost always meant death.  Outside of his circle of “friends”, she would be on her own, a vulnerable and attractive target, so she never strayed too far from the Nima Outpost. But she knew all the stories about Jakku; on cold evenings, the locals would gather by their fires and stoves and swap tall tales of their adventures.  They told of the Sinking Sands and dangerous places of mystery, like Carbon Ridge, where many a foolish scavenger vanished and sometimes strange sounds and lights could be seen from far away. Ren was very interested in the stories about the lights and sounds, but Rey herself had never witnessed them, so she had little to add to the basic fireside lecture on places one should not go.  

She told Ren the story about Jakku’s name, that some said it originally meant “death” in somebeing’s language; and that the name was well deserved; on Jakku because only the strongest – and luckiest – survived. 

“You are strong,” Ren said, “a force of Nature.”

Rey flushed at the praise; she was glad the corridor was dimly lit so he couldn’t see it. Then she told him how she was raised to be a scavenger, making her living by exploiting the dry-rusting wrecks that dated back to the great battle that ended the Empire’s hold on Jakku. She could tell from his expression as he listened that her account of that event that hers didn’t match what he’d been told, but she didn’t care because it was all so long ago. Who cared now, anyway? The Empire was long gone. Then she remembered another story, something about the Sith and a thousand years ago, but she didn’t really remember the details, except for a small bit:

“Something was buried there;” she recited it from memory. “It was ‘significant a thousand years ago and would be significant again’. I remember that because I didn’t know what ‘significant’ meant.”

Ren gave her a little crooked smile, but he made no comment; she could tell that what she’d just said meant something to him, but he wasn’t going to share it, and she was honestly too tired to care.

“What about the polar regions?” he asked.

“Dark and cold and nobody goes there.”

“That’s it?”

Rey groaned out loud and slid down the wall until she was lying on the floor beside him. “Can we stop for now?” She begged. “You’ve been asking me questions all day, and I’m so tired...”

“You’re right,” he answered, “We can pick it up where we left off tomorrow.”

She groaned again, this time dramatically; Ren reached down and stroked her hair and she was instantly asleep. He waited until he was sure she was deeply under, and then he reached down again; this time, touching her forehead.

“When I say _‘you have to go now’_ ,” his voice was gentle and forceful at the same time, “you will leave me.”

Rey stirred, but didn’t wake up; instead she reached up, took hold of his hand and pulled it down to her shoulder. Then she snuggled against it as if it was her pants-pillow, making him her captive, but he didn’t mind at all.

 

 

.....................

 

 

Aboard the Resistance Transport, Chewbacca was relaxing in the Falcon’s cockpit; all the maintenance was done and his ship was as sound as it could be. And it was just in time, too, because the minute he saw Luke Skywalker approaching, he knew that his time here was about to end; Luke was striding through the hanger bay with purpose, ignoring everyone he passed.  By the time the Wookie climbed from his seat in the Falcon’s cockpit and made his way down the tunnel, Luke was already standing in the communal space waiting for him.

“How soon can the Falcon be ready for flight?” Luke asked.

“Are we going somewhere?” Maz called from somewhere behind him, then she appeared at his side.

“Whenever you want,” Chewbacca said, there was a self-satisfied tone to his growl, “Everything’s fixed; we can go right now if you want.”

“I want right now,” Luke told him. “Get on the com and get clearance; and as soon as they say yes, we go.”

Chewbacca nodded and returned to the cockpit to make the call.

“Where are we going?” Maz asked. “And in such a rush, too.”

“Dagobah.”

“Dagobah?” Maz’s eyes grew large. “Why? What’s there?”

“The girl.”

“What? How do you know that?”

“I *know*,” Luke’s reply was short and pointed; he saw no need to tell Maz how he knew. “If you don’t want to come along, now is the time to say goodbye and get off.”

Maz seemed stricken by the suggestion that she should stay behind; for a second she hesitated, considering it, but then she looked up at him with eyes of steel.

“I’m coming with you.”

It was settled; Luke followed Chewbacca to the Falcon’s cockpit, leaving Maz alone.  This was bad, Luke was determined; she would not be able to stop him and it would take only days in Dagobah time to get there.

“Not enough time,” she murmured to herself, “Not enough time...”

 

 

.............................

 

 

Dagobah mornings always arrived cloaked in mystery.  As soon as an overnight downpour ended, the morning mists would rise, painting the world in soft, shadowed illusions until the sun was high enough to burn the mist off and reveal the world for what it truly was.

 

It was very early, still twilight to be exact, when Rey woke up.  Something felt wrong.

A quick check on Ren revealed that he was still sleeping soundly, so it was not him. A check in the cockpit revealed that the ship was functioning normally; it was occupied processing something Ren had asked of it, but the swift stream of characters scrolling on the waveform display had nothing to tell her. She returned to the corridor and went to the entry door, which slid open for her.

Outside, the post-rain mist was thicker than usual, the bushes and trees were almost lost in the swirling fog.

 _It’s nothing_ , she told herself, _go back to sleep._

But then something caught her attention; something out there in the fog, out of sight, but definitely there. Rey stepped out onto the ramp and strained for a view, and as her focus narrowed, a terrible fear possessed her; not for herself, but for Ren.  Instinct took over; she ran back into the ship, to his room, seized his lightsaber from the shelf and raced back to the ramp. The unknown danger was just starting to materialize from the fog when she lifted the lightsaber into position and ignited it. This time, the weapon had no bite; the red plasma blade rose swift and steady, and the quillons followed with the same smooth flow.  She had conquered it; the cracked Kyber crystal inside now obeyed her command.

Stop where you are!” she shouted, challenging the intruder.

The movement in the fog stopped, but only for a second, then Rey saw the robes, and then the face of Luke Skywalker

“Rey,” he called to her as he approached, “it’s Luke Skywalker! I’ve come for you!”

“Don’t come any closer!” she shouted.

 

Luke Skywalker was confused. The girl had definitely seen that it was him; yet she didn’t greet him, nor did she lower the lightsaber. He stopped where he was to consider the situation. For a few seconds, they stood in silent standoff, but then his nephew appeared at the entry behind her, looking as if he’d just awakened. Ben looked at Rey, followed her gaze and saw Luke standing there. Then Ben did something surprising; he walked down behind the girl, stretched his arms around hers and placed his hands over hers so they both were now holding the lightsaber. She resisted, but he leaned in close to her and whispered something and she relented. Luke could see the two of them press the power switch together, turning the lightsaber off.

“Let the girl go, Ben!” Luke shouted.

 

Despite what Ren had just said, the word “No”, spoken softly but firmly in her ear; Rey was not ready to stand down. There was no logic to her thinking; she couldn’t help herself.

“I’m not a prisoner!” She shouted back.

“Yes you are,” Ren said, this time loud enough for Luke to hear him. “And I’m giving you back.”

She threw his arms off hers and turned to face him.

“You sent for him?”

“Yes.”

Her face flushed, she blinked her eyes in disbelief. It was more than he could bear; he turned away from her and went back into the ship, but she followed him inside and cut off his retreat.

“So, that’s *it*?” she asked angrily, “You’re*giving* me back; don’t I get a say in it?"

“No.” He tried to keep his voice calm and cold; he didn’t want her to see what he was feeling, how much this hurt. “I’ve already told you why.”

“You don’t have to do this, Ren; I don’t have to go back; *you* don’t have to go back; talk to Master Luke; he can help…”

“That reminds me,” Ren stepped around her and went to his room. She followed. Once there, he took the small book from the shelf and handed it to her, “this belongs to him; return it for me.”

She looked down at the book in her hands, then back at him; he could see that she was starting to feel the pull back to her own life.  

“You really mean it,” She said quietly. “This is goodbye.”

He couldn’t make himself say yes; he couldn’t even look her in the eyes now. He went back into the corridor, and she followed.

“Get dressed and gather your things.”

He leaned against the corridor wall outside the entry to her room and waited. This was the place where they’d spent so much time together, where she’d literally cut the Kylo off him and saved his life, where she’d shared dreams and rescued him from nightmares; now it was the place where he would say goodbye and let her go. And once she was gone, he would go back and make things right for her.

When she emerged from her room, she was clutching a small black bundle to her chest. He didn’t ask what she was taking with her; she was welcome to it all. They were facing each other now for the last time; he would never see her again.

 _If only_ , he thought, _just once…_

As if she’d heard his thought, Rey moved in close, stepped up onto her toes, put her hands behind his ears, pulled his face to hers and kissed him. It was probably meant to say goodbye, but when she ended it; she didn’t let go. Instead, she looked into his eyes, searching, then finding, the truth he couldn't hide from her any longer. She kissed him again, and this time he could not keep himself from putting his arms around her, pulling her body tight against his, and kissing her back. It was a fierce and desperate kiss; for that one precious moment, nothing else existed but the two of them and the unspeakable truth. The kiss ended, but they remained pressed together, barely breathing, unable to let go. Ren wanted to stay right here forever, but it had to be done; he buried his face in her hair, close to her ear, then he closed his eyes and whispered softly.

_“You have to go now.”_

She stiffened and pulled back from him; he let his arms drop, releasing her.

“I have to go now,” She said.

“I know.”

She turned away, then ran to the entry and disappeared.

Ren didn’t fwollow her; he kept himself pinned to the corridor wall; he knew that if he watched her leave, he wouldn’t be able to let her go – and he had to let her go. The only way he held on was by banging the back of his head against the wall and reciting the Code over and over again. Saving her was the mission; he already had an idea of how to achieve the objective and from now on, that was all he would think about.

“...  above all, purity of purpose; I am Ren.”

 

………………

 

It wasn’t until she walked up the ramp, down the tunnel and into the communal room of the Millennium Falcon and saw Maz Katana standing there that Rey regained her senses and realized what had happened. She turned around instantly, but found Luke Skywalker blocking her way.

“He *pushed* me!” she glared at the Jedi Master, “and you *helped* him!”

It was true; Luke had been drowning in guilt all the way back from the Ren transport; he’d known it from the moment she walked down that ramp and over to him, but it didn’t matter to him how she came back as long as he got her back. Whatever Ben’s reason was for pushing her, it was the right reason, but now the girl was looking at him with anger and accusation in her eyes and he wished there had been another way.

“He can’t leave here,” Rey’s face changed from anger to fear. “We can’t let him leave!”

Before Luke could ask what she meant, Maz stepped between them; Rey’s attention and rage shifted immediately. “And *you*,” Rey hissed down at her, “Why are you even here?"

“It wasn’t my choice,” Maz sounded tired and sad. “Luke’s lightsaber chose you. The Force chose you.”

“The Force chose her?” Luke stepped beside Rey and turned on Maz, too. “Chose her for what, Maz?”

“For Ben,” Maz sighed, there was no reason to hold back now, so she was going to confess it all. “He is the last of the Skywalkers, and a terrible loss to the Light Side. There was a chance; I admit, it was a tiny chance, but we hoped that if we could place the two of them together, and give them enough time, she might… care… for him and then..."

“Who’s we, Maz?” Luke demanded.

“I had to do it, Luke,” Maz pleaded her case, “It was the only way to get guidance and help…”

“Who’s *we*?”

“Yoda.”

“Oh, Maz!” Suddenly Luke understood why she’d become so weak; she’d bonded herself to a Force ghost! Such a bond granted the seeker access to all of the dead spirit’s knowledge and experience, but at a terrible cost. Once created, the bond was unbreakable; it relentlessly sucked the life-force from the seeker and always resulted in death. The spirit being called could only learn what was being sought through bonding, and by then it was too late to be undone.  Maz and Yoda knew one another well in life, so his spirit would have responded to her call without hesitation.

“It was my idea,” Maz continued; there was more to tell, “that the girl…”

“She has a name, Maz.”

“… that *Rey* might be the one who could bring him back from the Dark Side, so I did what I could, I showed her who Ben Solo was, in case the improbable happened – and it did. That was not my doing; it was *destiny*; Yoda agreed with me once we saw it unfolding.” She looked up at Rey with disappointment on her face, “but there was not enough time to save the Skywalker line.”

Luke put his hands to his face in dismay, this was unbelievable! Rey said nothing; she was staring past them, out into the tunnel, at the ramp beyond, as if she wasn’t even listening anymore. Why the Jedi, living and dead alike, believed the Skywalker line was so important that it had to be saved at any cost was no mystery to Luke; it was the midichlorians; it was *always* the midichlorians. To the Jedi, the Skywalker bloodline represented - how had Dar Noaa had described it that night? 

_The Best of Breed._

Luke felt sick; he knew that Skywalkers were no such thing; they were the result of dark and deliberate manipulation and not natural in any way.  By the time Luke found the writings that told that hideous story, Ben had already been born, and Luke resolved then never to have any children of his own.  Now Maz had condemned herself to death for those very same midichlorians, for the very same “ideal” that had brought both Jedi and Sith to near extinction. And she showed no remorse for having done it.

Maz reached up and touched Rey’s hand to get her attention, but Rey jerked her hand away as if it had been soiled by the touch.

“Have we failed?” Maz asked.

Rey looked down at her with contempt.

“Yes.”

Maz’s face seemed to sag; she lowered her head and sighed sadly.

“And now,” she mourned, as if he was dead, “he’s going back to the Dark Side…”

“That’s all you care about, isn’t it?” Rey’s hands became fists. “Saving him from the Dark side? What about saving his *life*? You never gave a damn about that, did you?”

Both Maz and Luke looked at her in amazement.

“He told me to get far away from the Force and all of you,” Rey was more upset and angry with every word. Maz had just reduced Ren to a lost cause, but she was not going to stand there and let that happen. Somebody had to speak for him; somebody had to tell them who he was, “and now I know why. He knows you don’t care about him.”

“That’s not true, Rey,” Luke protested, “We care more than you know, but he’s chosen the Dark Side; there’s nothing more we can do.”

“You don’t know him like I do,” Rey insisted on being heard. “He never chose *anything*; he never had the chance; everything he thought he knew turned out to be lies, everyone he ever cared about manipulated or betrayed him. He’s lost and broken and alone; he thinks there’s nothing left for him; he thinks he’s not worth saving. That’s why he sent for you, to take me away, so he could go back…” she put a hand to her mouth as full realization took hold and the tears started. “Don’t you understand?” she wailed. “Ren isn’t going back to the Dark Side - he’s going back to *die*!”

Luke had heard enough; he reached out and looked deep into Rey’s mind. What he saw there filled him with horror; a vision of a boney ancient hand and a voice that he’d never forgotten. The deepest, darkest of all his fears, the one he’d shared with only a few trusted friends revealed itself to be true – Palpatine wasn’t dead! Luke had always feared that the monster might have found a way to escape the Death Star before it exploded, just as he had escaped with his father. Darth Sidious bragged in his writings about being immortal; and now that Luke knew that he was still alive somehow, many things started to fall into place; everything from the destruction of Ben Solo to Dar Noaa’s madness about somebody stealing the Force… 

“You’re right, Rey,” he told the girl, “We can’t let him leave; he has no idea who he’s going up against!”

 

But it was already too late; by the time they’d raced back to the place where the Ren Transport had been, they found it empty.

Ren was gone.

 

 

 

 

 


	18. Chapter 18

 

-18-

 

Message 481129292987:

  **Central Command Investigatvie Unit 10001**

**Attn: General Hux, A.**

**Subject: Starkiller Base Accident**

**CC has concluded the investigation into the Starkiller Base Accident and determined that the cause of the aforesaid accident was a failure in the Thermal Control System (TCS). The calibration sequence for the Thermal Oscillator System (TOS) was flawed and resulted in the eventual overload and failure of the system. As a result of this finding, the architect has been executed and all subcontractors involved in the design, sequencing and construction failure have been arrested and their company assets seized.**

**General Armitage Hux had no part in, or knowledge of, the conspiracy and is absolved of all responsibility in this matter.**

**This inquiry is now closed.**

 

Hux snorted as he read the message. There had been no inquiry, there would be none – Supreme Leader Snoke had made sure of that. This meant that Hux would retain his command.

With that behind him, Hux could now focus on other, more pressing matters.

The first matter was the failure of his mission to ‘retrieve’ the girl and totally eliminate the Knights of Ren. The Knights were gone, but their Kylo and the girl escaped. Leader Snoke accepted his report without question: the mission failed because Kylo Ren disobeyed orders to turn over the girl, then he abandoned the Knights, leaving them behind to die while he fled with her. A carefully edited recording of the event, one that ended when the firefight started so what happened after the Knights were eliminated was not included, clearly showed Ren having the girl put into his own transport. That was enough to convince Leader Snoke, and the fact that Hux was still alive and still in command was proof that his version of the story had been accepted. The search for the traitor was underway, but Hux would make sure that, if and when Ren was found, he would not be taken alive; neither would the girl, if she was still in his possession.

But until that time came, Hux would have to be vigilant; Ren knew his part in the execution of the Knights of Ren and would surely try to take revenge. There were billions of beings who would love to take revenge on Armitage Hux for a billion different reasons; but only one of them was an unbelievably powerful Force-using psychotic actually capable of getting to him. The risk was huge, but so was the payoff; for now, Ren was out of the way. Hux had been raised to accept that the only way to obtain power was by taking risk, and the greater the power sought, the greater the risk taken.

There were those in the First Order who believed that he had risen to his position because of his father’s power and influence; but Armitage knew the truth; his father made him work a thousand times harder than anyone else for everything he achieved. Brendol Hux was a military visionary, but he was a cold and often brutal parent. Living up to his father’s expectations and then exceeding his demands was what forged the boy Armitage Hux into the man General Hux. He *earned* this; he spent his youth at the Academy, and then worked his way up through the ranks; he fulfilled everything the First Order required of a command officer and more. Kylo Ren had done none of that; the power he enjoyed had just been handed to him with no sacrifice on his part at all; even the Supreme Leader’s affection came at no cost to Ren. Hux despised Ren for that, and he also feared him - if Kylo Ren got to Armitage Hux first, he would be neither quick nor merciful. But that was the risk he’d been willing to take.

The second matter was much more pressing and immediate: the Finalizer was starving.

Despite having its population reduced by half due to the loss of personnel who were on Starkiller when it was destroyed and the recall of most of the surviving troops to Central Command, the First order’s flagship was rapidly running out of everything. Supply deliveries either showed up short or not at all. The problem had been brought to Hux’s attention some time ago, but his interest then was solely in completing the Starkiller project and he let the problems slide. As a result, The Finalizer was completed using questionable cost-cutting measures, many of which Hux now realized were completely unacceptable, even dangerous. A General had to be cold and calculating, but Hux cared very much about his troops. They were the base of his power; their well-being was his well-being, their safety was his safety. Now that Starkiller was gone and the First Order was scrambling to regain control in the chaos, Hux’s daily report list was getting longer and more strident by the hour. Central Command was ignoring his messages asking when he might expect the now desperately-needed supplies to arrive, and the Finalizer had been reduced to the humiliating task of conducting scavenger raids just to keep its remaining personnel fed.

Hux scanned the list of requests and complaints wearily; this was something beyond his control, and it filled him with anger and apprehension. The anger came from the realization that Central Command no longer respected him the way they should, and the apprehension came from the thought that perhaps now that Starkiller was gone, Central Command had shifted all of its attention the “other” project; the secret project he knew little about beyond the fact that it had been siphoning off resources that he needed for as long as he could remember.  The idea that power had shifted away from him and into other, unknown hands unnerved Hux; it could only mean one thing: despite what the official report said, his command was in jeopardy. He’d sent a request for an audience with Supreme Leader and was now waiting on the reply. When the comlink sounded, he answered it quickly.

“General, Sir,” the voice said, “Your request for an audience has been approved; report to the Assembly Hall immediately.”

Hux hurried, but when he arrived at the Assembly Hall and entered, he found that Supreme Leader Snoke was already present and waiting for him.

“Forgive me, Supreme Leader,” he apologized as he walked to his assigned spot, “I only just received the approval…”

“That is of no matter.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader; thank you, Supreme Leader.”

“Speak.”

“The Finalizer needs supplies; I’ve made repeated appeals to Central Command to no avail, and our situation is becoming serious,” Hux reported. The situation was well beyond serious, but he knew that Leader Snoke would not receive that news kindly. “If you were to direct them…”

“That will have to wait, General,” Snoke replied with disinterest, “the Finalizer is to return to the planet Jakku immediately.”

“Jakku?” Hux was alarmed; Jakku was desolation itself, there would be nothing there for his troops to take. “Supreme Leader, I don’t believe you understand the seriousness of our situation…”

“Jakku; General,” Snoke’s voice became dark and threatening. “Immediately.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

“And once you are there,” Snoke continued, “I have a mission for you; for you *personally*, General.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

“Prepare your shuttle; essential crew only,” Snoke started to fade. “I will send your orders when the time comes.”

“Yes, Supreme Leader.”

The holographic image vanished.

Hux stood there; his fingers felt cold and there was a dull ache in his stomach. Frustration and fear, just as he remembered it; the feeling that came every time his father would give him a new “test” to prove his worthiness.  He swallowed hard, and pushed the feeling to the back of his mind.

He had his orders.

 

……..…

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, it had been a sad and shocking day.  It was getting late in the afternoon when Luke and Rey returned to the Millennium Falcon for the second time. The physical punishment of traveling through the thick and unforgiving jungle was only surpassed by the mental punishment of all the revelations, good, bad and tragic...

Rey stood in the crew quarters shower cove washing the muck and grime of two treks through Dagobah off her body. It was the first real shower she’d had in quite a while, and although the stream of hot water from the shower head was nowhere near a night rain, the gentle rinse had a comforting effect. The timer went off and the water stopped, and she stepped out into the drying pad, then and stood still while the warm air blowing from the grate below dried her. A small and pitiless mirror on the cove wall beckoned to her; she stepped up it and took a long look. A tired girl with tangled hair and bloodshot eyes rubbed red and raw from crying herself dry stared back at her.

 _Some force of Nature_ , she thought angrily. _When I catch up to you, Ren…_

 The thought made her catch her breath. Ren was gone; she had no idea where he was, and yet, here she stood staring herself down in the mirror because she knew he was out there…

  _Alive._

She knew it. She could feel him; not his heartbeat or his breathing, but something else; something that had no substance in the physical sense but was as real and reassuring as her fingers on his skin. She’d underestimated his resolve; she heard every word he said, but she believed that, given enough time, she would convince him to stay with her.

_Maz was right; there wasn't enough time._

His reason for going back made no sense to Rey at all and that could certainly be because he was crazy. He was crazy; how could he not be? Who wouldn’t be if they were in his place? But Rey felt that there was another reason that he didn’t tell her, and it was that other, unspoken reason that made him leave her; that and the unbearable guilt she saw in his eyes when he was telling her what a monster he was. And then this morning, at the very moment when he was showing her how much he wanted to stay with her, he told her to go…

_No, don’t think about that._

Rey tried to get some control over her hair by running her fingers through it, but the tangles and knots fought back. It made her angry; she tugged hard and felt the sting of hair being pulled out.

_Even my hair is leaving me._

When her family left her, she was too tiny and weak to do anything about it, but Jakku had cured her of that.  She was strong, he said so himself; but she wasn’t acting strong right now, she was acting like a helpless little girl. And while she was wasting precious time washing up and feeling sorry for herself, he was getting further and further away…

“You,” she snarled at the face in the mirror, “are an *idiot*!”

She was still damp, but she stepped off the drying pad and quickly went the bench where her black bundle and a small pile of clothes waited for her.  She untied the arms of Ren’s tunic and carefully moved its contents to one side; his little book to return to Master Luke, his dagger and a few food cubes. Then she slipped the tunic over her head and let it fall. She grabbed a pair of grey pants and stepped into them; they must have belonged to General Organa because the legs were a bit too short for her, but they would do until her own pants were cleaned. A wide grey belt and several careful tucks in the tunic made it fit well enough and then she stepped into a pair of well-worn boots that were tight but tolerable. Finally, Rey slipped the cord of the dagger pouch around the belt and threaded it through itself, securing it. She grabbed the book and hurried out of the crew quarters, through the galley and then the curved corridor that led the communal room.

In the communal room, she saw that Maz was resting in the bunk behind the djarik table with Chewbacca sitting close by. He was holding her hand. Rey’s fury at Maz was spent now, and all she felt seeing the two of them together there was sorrow for Chewbacca; it seemed so unfair that he was about to lose another beloved friend. She walked on in silence, leaving them to share what time Maz had left now in privacy.

She found Master Luke in the cockpit; he was sitting in the copilot seat, looking out at the gathering afternoon clouds. He seemed lost in thought, and for a second Rey wondered if he was remembering his own time here; but as soon as she slipped into the pilot’s seat, he turned and looked at her.

“You look… better now.” he said.

“I have something for you,” Rey held out the book and offered it to him. “Ren ‘borrowed’ it; he asked me to return it to you.”

“I was in such a rush to burn them all,” Luke reached for it, “It never even occurred to me to check if anything was missing.”

“This one might be important, Master Luke. He read it over and over again.”

 

Luke looked at the book and felt an icy chill when he saw which one it was.

Absolute Power

It was a remnant of a work by Darth Sidius; a copy that contained actual notations added by the monster himself. Luke spent many hours searching those pages, and then adding notations of his own. He felt a tiny spark of hope; that night back on the island, Ben was being serious when he said his time had “not been wasted” when he arrived to find Luke, but not his journal, gone. Perhaps Ben was so intrigued with the pages because he had suspicions, too; if so, then he would have a small idea of who the being behind Snope was – and how utterly dark and dangerous that being was. Luke needed to re-read these pages right away.

 

Rey watched in silence, and as she did, she leaned forward and made a quick check of the Falcon’s status. All systems were online. She sat back and scratched her nose, then leaned forward again and slipped her hand over the controls until it was resting over the preflight lockdown and launch sequencer, and slowly pressed her palm down, activating it. Then she moved her hand a little further to the right and up…

“Where are we going?”

Luke asked without looking up from the book. Rey froze; this was unexpected; her plan was to fly first and explain later.

 “I don’t know where he is,” she told him, “but I know where we should start looking.”

Master Luke looked at her expectantly.

“Jakku,” she continued, “That’s where he’ll go... if he can.”

 

…………….

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, it was surprisingly quiet aboard the Visitor. This was because several important projects were either nearing completion or were already there. Revived by his nap, Finn was once again busy on assembling the lightsaber, and in the cockpit, Dar Na and Poe were piloting the ship to a safe landing. Everything was going fine, except in the sleeper quarters where Leia and Dar Noaa had finished their project and were now dealing with the aftereffects...

“Where are they?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “I wasn’t watching.”

“Help me find them.”

“Just get dressed, nobody sees them anyway; and nobody will know you aren’t wearing them.”

“Except *you*.”

“What’s wrong with that? And why do you even wear them?"

“It’s just… something that we do.”

“All right, then,” Dar Noaa realized that this was not a subject where logic was going to matter, so he was willing to just let it go, “it’s a small space; keep looking and you’ll find them. I’ll go ahead; I have to go over Finn’s results with him anyway, and that will take a while.”

He put his hand to Leia’s cheek, but she pulled back from it.

“Have I done wrong here?” he asked.

“No,” she replied, “I have.”

“In what way?”

“I shouldn’t have…” she lowered her eyes, “I don’t know what came over me…”

“I believe that was me.”

“No,” Leia blushed, “This was, it was… wonderful,” She was still basking in afterglow, but guilt was already starting to fester inside her. Leia Organa the General didn’t care, Leia Organa the woman felt wonderful, but Leia Solo the widow was sure she’d just betrayed the love of her life. “But it’s only been days since... Han…” she had to force herself to say his name aloud, “… he deserves… there hasn’t even been a memorial for him yet…”

Dar Noaa put his arms around her.

“… They’ll want ceremonies and vigils,” she warned him, “I’ll be expected to attend so many…”

“And you will go.”

“But… "

“Han Solo was your husband; he is the father of your child. You loved him; you love him still,” Dar Noaa rocked her gently as he spoke. “You should do what tradition, and your heart, tell you; that holds no threat for me. Do what will give you comfort; then come home.”

Leia closed her eyes and snuggled against him; in his arms she felt no uncertainty, no fearful anticipation; in his arms, she felt safe and loved.

He felt like home.

 

 

……….

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon was fighting its way through storm clouds as it left Dagobah. The sudden and unannounced lift-off of *his* ship brought Chewbacca to the cockpit immediately and his demand was simple.

“What’s going on here?”

“We needed to get offworld before the night rains started,” Rey replied first, this was her action and it was her responsibility to explain it. “And I didn’t want to take you away from Maz.”

Chewbacca looked at Luke.

“We’re going to Jakku,” Luke told him, “Rey thinks that’s where Ben might be headed.”

Chewbacca said nothing; if they wanted to follow Kylo Ren, he had no objections. Both Luke and Rey seemed to have forgotten that Han Solo was dead, but Chewbacca remembered. He would help them follow, he would help them find him; and when they found him, Chewbacca would do what was necessary.  

“Rey,” Luke said, “Give Chewy the seat.”

Rey got up and out of the seat, then slid behind Chewbacca; he took her place. The Falcon had cleared Dagobah’s atmosphere, and the co-ordinates for Jakku were already loaded, so all he had to do was make the jump.

 

………

 

Luke expelled Rey from the cockpit with a gesture indicating she should leave, so she returned to the communal space to find a place to be for the time being. Maz was awake; Rey felt her eyes following her, so she steered herself that way. The rich amber color of Maz’s face had faded, but her eyes were still bright.

“I never meant to hurt you,” Maz said, “I was trying to save what I could.”

“I know,” Rey sat in the seat where Chewbacca had been before, “You had a vision of something that might be, and you wanted it to be.”

“I saw a chance,” Maz sighed sadly, “I saw love.”

Rey had no reply for that; she couldn’t pretend to herself anymore that there was nothing between her and Ren. But she didn’t fully understand how she felt, she simply *felt*, so it was better that she not give it a name that could come back to haunt her later; that would have to wait until she found him again. Perhaps Maz could help her find him.

“I have a question for you.” Rey said.

“Ask it,” Maz smiled slightly, as if the words pleased her. “If I know the answer, I will tell you.”

“Why was Tekka on Jakku?”

Maz’s face tightened.

“He went there to find peace for his final days,” Maz answered, “but what he found there was madness.” She shifted her weight, as if this was the start of a long story. “You know there are many religious communities on Jakku; Tekka found a home with one of them; in Tuanul, I think it was; Force Worshippers. They told him stories; crazy tales about mysterious activity to the North and terrible prophecies about rising Darkness, and it seemed to drive him mad. His visits to me became rare and when he did visit, he would say “something has to be done”. I disagreed, I told him to keep his promise to Luke; but he decided on his own to send word to the Resistance that he had the map; he knew the terrible risk he was taking by revealing himself to anyone; and sure enough, the First Order found out. I think in the end, Tekka was so convinced that the whole galaxy was on the brink of total disaster that he was willing to do anything he could to set things in motion…”

“Even willing to betray *himself*?”

“Yes; he was a believer; he would do whatever was necessary.”

Rey’s mind was reeling; what could be so important that a being would sacrifice his own life and the lives of so many others just because “something has to be done”?

Perhaps Master Luke would know.

 

 

……………

 

 

_Sometime later, in the Jakku system…_

 

“General Hux,” the voice on the comlink sounded nervous, “We will have stabilized orbit in fifteen minutes, Sir.”

“Very good.”

“And there’s something else, Sir,” the voice almost cracked, “We have received a message from Supreme Leader Snoke.”

Hux was surprised; he’d expected his private orders to come directly to his office, bypassing the eyes and ears of his subordinates entirely. “Go ahead.”

“It reads: By direct order of Supreme Leader Snoke: the Knights of Ren have been summoned and their Transport will arrive within the hour. Under No Circumstances are the personnel of the Finaliizer to interfere with their activities. Confirm and Broadcast.”

Silence.

“General? Sir? Do you confirm?”

“Confirmed.”

Hux sat very still, his mind unable to accept what he’d just heard. When he was finally able to breathe again, he rose slowly from his desk, walked to his sanitary station and vomited.

 

………....

 

 

The Finalizer had been in orbit around Jakku for less than one hour when Ren found it, exactly where Supreme Leader Snoke said it would be. 

Ren’s Force-carrier message was vaguely worded:

**Mission Accomplished.**

Snoke’s reply was deceivingly direct:

**Finalizer. Jakku. Come.**

It could be a trap, of course, but Ren doubted that any trap would be sprung until after Snoke had a chance to see and interrogate him personally. That would not prevent him from carrying out his plan; it would simply terminate the mission afterward.

The waveform display before him was a flurry of activity; the flight report was streaming, and beside it; there was a cascade of data flowing faster than he could even see it. This was the final sequence of his plan to avenge his Knights; which the ship would execute on his command. It was a brilliant plan, too; but it was not the product of Ren’s imagination. No, that honor belonged to FN2187, the Sanitation Stormtrooper; and it was part of the reason that Ren had spared FN2187 that night on Jakku. When Ren looked into FN2187’s mind, he discovered that the Stromtrooper spent a lot of time dreaming up ways to get back at his superiors and the First Order in general - and one of his sabotage fantasies was creative genius. Like all sanitation workers, FN2187 worked deep inside the ship’s labyrinth of support conduits. There were hundreds of kilometers of narrow tubular passageways woven into the ship’s infrastructure, many were so tight that only one crewman at a time could squeeze inside to perform work. FN2187’s idea was to get inside those conduits and once there; simply turn things off and on. Open valves would be closed; closed valves would be opened; same for circuits; and then airflow and water flow and sewage flow would all be reversed. And then, the conduit itself would be crushed in multiple and random locations, making it impossible to access. FN2187 estimated that for a ship the size of the Finalizer, system failure would start as soon as five minutes and total systems failure would result in less than an hour.

Sabotage on such a massive scale was, of course, impossible for one being to do *alone*, unless that one being was the Kylo of Ren.

As soon as Ren had been reported renegade, his access to the ship’s central control system was terminated; but not even Hux knew of all his access IDs and codes, so he was able to get in anyway. Right now, the Ren Transport was uploading a sequence that would reroute the ship’s electrical system. When executed, it would overload and shut down circuits in what would seem a random pattern, but that was just a show to divert attention from the real target of the electrical attack – the ship’s secret cache of Kyber crystals. Those targeting crystals were the First Order’s not-so-best-kept secret; their use increased firing power and shortened recharge time for its weapons making unsuspecting adversaries easy prey.  Ren didn’t know what the feedback loop in that circuit would do when it maxed out, but he knew it would be impressive.

At least that’s what the ship told him.

And for the rest, all Ren had to do was walk through the ship; FN2187 knew where everything was, so Ren knew where it was, and with every step he took toward the Assembly Hall and Supreme Leader Snoke, he’d use the Force to leave a trail of secret destruction behind him.

And then finally, the Ren Transport would complete the mission by self-destructing in the hanger bay. The resulting explosion would not only take out both the port and starboard hangers, it would breach the reactor containment wall and cause an emergency shutdown

In short, in less than an hour, the Knights of Ren would be avenged; Ren would have personally made the Finalizer uninhabitable, and it would stay that way for a very, very long time.

It was just too bad he wouldn’t live to see it.

 

……………

 

Hux was sitting at his desk, waiting for the inevitable.  

There was nothing to do; no way to escape; by coming back to the Finalizer, Ren had trapped him here. It was the single point of failure in his command, the fact that as the General, it was impossible for him to move about the ship alone and unnoticed; getting to any form of transport would mean running the gauntlet. His personnel were totally dedicated; not to him personally but to what he represented to them, the First Order. The instant they learned that their general had committed treason against the Supreme Leader, they would turn on Hux exactly as he had trained them to. Hux laughed darkly at the irony of it; even now, he was still *proud* of his personnel.

He wondered if he should send any personal messages before the end came, but decided there was no one to send a message to. His family would want no part of him now and he had no friends, only associates and subordinates; and his lovers, both casual and professional alike, were only sex partners; no one touched him personally. That was something his father taught him early in life; that to be in command was to be alone; there was no place for sentiment.  

Another dark irony struck him; the closest thing he’d ever had to a personal relationship was his rivalry with Ren. Hating Ren, undermining and besting Ren, doing whatever he could to get under the Kylo’s helmet and mess with his head, was one of Hux’s reasons to live; it had become part of his routine - and he hated that it was going to end this way. 

It was Armitage Hux who was supposed to win!

He took a deep breath, got out of his chair, smoothed his uniform as he’d done a thousand times before; then he headed out the door to run the gauntlet.

 

.....................

 

The Ren Transport was granted permission to dock, and since the Knights of Ren were free to dock anywhere they wanted, Ren chose the starboard hanger bay.  An ordinary command transport would not be able to fit in there, but the Ren ship was special, one of a kind. Ren tapped the display and the ship’s batwing foils slid backwards and down, folding themselves along the ship’s hull like an insect’s wings, reducing the ship’s height and making it easy to glide into the bay between the Tie fighter banks. The ship touched down deep inside the bay, almost touching the central interior bulkhead.  

Anticipating Ren’s next move, the waveform display offered the Execute command query.

Ren looked at it in silence; he’d never given it any thought before, but the fact was, he had great affection for this ship. It was more than just a magnificent machine; it was a trusted friend now, a trusted friend who was going to help him betray Snoke and avenge his Knights. Ren was grateful for everything.

 _Foolish sentiment!_ He laughed at himself as he thought it. _No wonder Snoke feared it so much._

Then Ren realized that he was going to have to suppress how he felt; if Snoke sensed even the slightest trace of sentiment, the plan would fail. He rose from his seat and inspected himself; his clothes were simple now; there was no robe, no armored vest and sleeves, no collar. The last time he’d seen those items was when Rey carried them down the ramp to discard them. Like so much else, those things now lay buried and decaying on the wet world of Degobah. He smoothed his tunic and checked that his belt and lightsaber were securely fastened, and then looked over at his helmet, which was sitting in the empty seat.

_No. You stay behind; I have no need for you now.  
_

It was time to calm and center himself; he needed to be the Kylo of Ren now; totally focused on the mission ahead. The Code would guide him.

“... above all, purity of purpose; I am Ren.”

And when he was sure that he was ready; he put his hand on the waveform and said the word.

“Execute."

And then he left .

His long legs served their purpose well as he walked through the ship toward the Assembly Hall; the few beings he encountered quickly got out of the way; they turned their heads and let him pass just as they always had.  And with every step, he reached out with the Force, following FN2187’s directions precisely. He could sense the tiniest of changes in the environment behind him; satisfying little hisses and crackles coming from the bowels of the Finalizer told him that this part of his plan was going to succeed. No matter what lay ahead, the Knights of Ren would be avenged.

When he reached the Assembly Room entry, the door was already open. He strode inside without hesitation and walked to his assigned spot to wait.  He didn’t have to wait long, though, the blue holographic display formed within seconds, and the image of Snoke loomed above him once again.

“So, Kylo Ren,” Snoke’s voice was dark; Ren knew what that tone meant, but he didn’t care anymore. His master leaned forward in the seat, stretching like a predator about to strike. “You have returned to me.”

“I have,” Ren made sure his reply had just the right amount of indifference. “Was there any doubt that I would?”

Snoke seemed confused by that reply; he paused for a second and looked down at Ren intently.

“You betrayed me.”

“No; *you* betrayed *me*,” Ren counterattacked coldy. “You sent Hux to assassinate the Knights of Ren, to assassinate *me* - and it almost worked.  But in your haste, you *trusted* Hux; and it was Hux who betrayed *you*. He never intended to bring the girl back.”

“I have already deduced that fact,” Snoke’s expression changed, he was interested. “And where is the girl now?”

**“Dead.”**

Snoke’s body jerked back as if he’d been struck, and Ren knew it was time to drive it in deep. He looked his master straight in the eyes and spoke slowly, making sure every breath was filled with conceit and contempt.

**“No one takes *my*place.”**

It was done.  Snoke seemed paralyzed by the news, but if the lie worked, his rage would be swift and unstoppable; Ren would be dead in minutes.

But the minutes passed, and Ren was still standing there, waiting.

Finally Snoke’s image moved again; it fell back against the seat and let out a gigantic roar of dark and terrible... *joy*?

“At last!” Snoke proclaimed. “You are *perfect*!”

Then the image froze again, and in the silence, Ren heard one of the walls in the Assembly Hall making a sound. He turned and saw smoke and sparks, and then the wall blew open as all the circuitry behind it shorted out in one violent burst of energy.  Ren raised his arm against the glare and looked away, just in time to see Snoke’s image sputter and vanish. That’s when Ren realized that FN2187’s plan was starting to materialize; the circuitry blazing before him was the Holographic Reception System, and without it, Snoke’s broadcast connection had been cut off completely.  It took a few seconds for it all to sink in. **  
**

_The future is always in motion... I’m not going to die here!_

There was no going back to the Ren Transport; he would never make it in time; but he had a chance to escape if he could reach one of the ancillary docking bays.

And he knew exactly which one to head for...

 

........................

 

The final sequence in the program was rapidly approaching when the Ren Transport determined that an override was required. Scanning its records, it found a suitable target site; the Identification code was only recently received, but the ship had confidence that it was genuine. 

The waveform display flashed green.

The data dump was huge, but it took only a few seconds to compress and transmit; and when the data dump was done, the ship resumed the final sequence...

... 3 ... 2 ... 1...

The Ren Transport became a ball of bright yellow energy; the shockwave blew through bulkheads and down the central void of The Finalizer in both directions, blasting everything in its path.  The massive destroyer heaved and shuddered fore and aft; flames and gas shot out of every wound, and then the ship began to collapse inward, into itself, causing a second wave of explosions and tremors that set off a third wave, and then a fourth.

The Knights of Ren had been avenged.

 

.....................

 


	19. Chapter 19

-19-

 

 

The dry and desolate face of Jakku had changed; the First Order’s recent visit to the desert world left temporary scars all over it. Wind and sand would soon cover the wounds and erase all traces of the event, but it would linger on in fireside stories; and like all fireside stories, there would always be a few words of truth included.

 

The Millenium Falcon arrived in the Jakku system to discover that they were not the only outsiders there; they picked up the Finalizer’s signature and avoided detection by making their approach from the far side; staying low, gliding over the desert plains and snaking through deep ravines so that any trace the Finalizer’s sensors picked up would mimic ordinary surface traffic since the Falcon’s small size would easily be mistaken for a salvage operations transport.

Rey was riding co-pilot, but her mind was not on the ship.

She was looking down at the terrain, seeing it both familiar and strange. It was not Jakku that had changed, though, it was her; the girl who had lived here for so many years was gone forever, and the girl who was looking down on it now knew she was never going back to that life. She managed to get a glimpse of her walker as they passed over it; it looked so small and lonely now that she had seen so much of what lay beyond the confines of her desert world.

_Goodbye._

Chewbacca had followed her instructions to the letter and they came up fast on Niima Station; the beacon there was still in operation, so the Falcon was using it as a reference point. Once there, Chewbacca made a clean turn and then followed the bright, thin line that was the Pilgrim’s Road through the Goazan, all the way to Kelvin Ravine.

Despite the fact that, like so many settlements on Jakku, it was isolated and tiny, all that remained of the village known as Tuanul was easy to find; from above, its charred remains revealed themselves like a bruise on pale skin. Chewbacca set the Falcon down as close as he safely could, in a narrow dry channel between two rocky outcroppings. The site would provide good cover for the ship; but it meant a difficult hike to the village. It also meant that Maz Katana would have to remain behind, but Chewbacca would remain with her and stay alert and ready for any emergency departures.

R2D2 rolled down the ramp, then paused at the bottom and tested the compacted sand and rock carefully before proceeding.  Luke and Rey were already well ahead; Rey had taken the lead, walking with confidence on her home world again, staff in hand. Luke was following her at a slower, more cautious pace, and R2D2 caught up with him quickly. This trek was a far cry from the short steep and sometimes impossible treks R2D2 had attempted back on the island when Luke would take the girl for walks; it was much less challenging, and as long as the droid kept itself following Luke’s footprints exactly, there was little risk of rolling into trouble.  Finally they reached the low, rolling ridges that meant they were almost there; up one and down the far side; then up another and they were on the ridge overlooking the ruins.

“If this is Tuanul, then…” Rey paused to check her bearings, “then *that* should be Carbon Ridge and the Sinking Sands should be... there.”

“I want to go down there,” Luke said.

“Doesn’t look like there’s much left.”

“If Tekka was working to a plan,” Luke was already moving, “he might have left something.”

“I doubt you’ll find anything,” Rey slipped past him to take the lead again, “this place would have been picked clean just as soon as the First Order left.”

Ignoring the girl’s advice, Luke proceed to make his way down towards the ruin; unlike him, Rey was thinking in terms of objects and things, but Luke knew Tekka may have left something behind that could only be found by an old and trusted friend. The ground was soft, though, too soft to go straight, but they found a winding pathway that snaked its way down and followed it. That path had probably been preserved for centuries by generations of hands sweeping it clear and by trotting feet that kept it firm, but now with its caretakers gone, it was already being lost to the relentless drifting sand.

Once they arrived at flat hard plain, they went straight toward the village, passing the burnt and twisted wreckage of an X-wing fighter along the way, and when they reached the village, instead of an open central common, there was now a small dune of sand and rock.

“It’s a grave,” Rey explained what Luke already knew. She came from scavengers, but they were not savages; the first ones to arrive covered the dead so the desert could take them in peace. Angry spirits brought sandstorms and dry wells, and no salvage was worth risking that. “I wonder if anybody got away.”

Luke didn’t answer; he was looking at the grave. Faint echoes of weapons being fired and beings screaming drifted through his head but no Tekka; by the time this happened, Tekka was already dead. He was in there, though, his body resting at the bottom of the pile. Aside from sorrow, there was nothing to be found here, so he walked on.

The destruction was complete; there was no way to identify which of the ruins was what, so they had to visit every one.  Luke would linger for a few minutes at each one, but then he would say “Let’s move on.”

Rey was growing impatient; she felt they should be looking to Carbon Ridge; it was where the dying Empire buried its secrets and where the stories from her childhood all pointed; it was also where she felt sure she would find Ren. Her thoughts were interrupted when Luke suddenly stopped and looked to his right. The ruin there showed no distinction to Rey, but Luke turned immediately and walked to it, then entered. Rey followed; the inside showed evidence of fire and ransacking, but nothing more.

Luke walked to the center of the room, closed his eyes...

 

 _“These days I can only do so much_ ,” _Tekka said. “Would that I could so much more – and there is so much more that needs to be done. But, this will begin to make things right.”_

_“Legend says this is unobtainable,” the young man replied. “How’d you get it?”  
_

_Tekka only smiled in response. Then he looked down…_

 

Luke bent low, put his hands on the floor, felt something there, and then brushed at the ashes that had once been a carpet. Rey automatically followed his lead; they worked together, clearing the floor in minutes, revealing a mosaic painstakingly inlaid into the hard clay. It was made from hundreds of stone and pottery shards, each one precisely set by hand; a thing of beauty and from the look of it, only recently finished.

Symbols so ancient and obscure that only a most-learned student of the Force would even recognize - much less understand – them surrounded Luke, and he turned slowly, taking it all in. Woven among the images was a message written in Tekka’s personal code:

_Plagueis Was Right About A Great Many Things_

Luke remembered reading that statement; it was a notation written by Palpatine on the margins of Plagueis’ manuscript “Perpetual Life”. The manuscript was among those Luke burned that night on the island, but its contents were burned into Luke’s mind. Plagueis recorded that he had found new applications, some of which were for the manipulation of space-time on what he called ‘a grand scale’. He also wrote about ‘folding space’ and generating a ‘vergence’ of the Force. Taken together, those statements sounded ominous now.

Then there were the writings about creating and then achieving perpetual life; those included references to preserving consciousness beyond physical death as well as literally creating life by manipulating midichlorians. There was no forgetting those passages for a Skywalker; they haunted Luke.

He turned once more, this time studying the images; some were simple geometric shapes, others were animals. The images seemed unrelated until Luke realized that all the animals were looking in the same direction.

“What’s out there, that way, Rey?” he pointed as he asked.

“Umm, we’re at Kelvin Ravine,” she stared at the mosaic, trying to see what Master Luke saw, to no avail. “More Goazon, mostly;” then she looked away from the floor and pointed, “Carbon Ridge,” she moved her hand as she recited the names, “and the Sinking Fields; and the caves; and in between, the Goazan.”

“You think we should be at Carbon Ridge, don’t you?”

“Yes, Master Luke.”

“Then that’s where we’re going.” 

 

They were almost back to the Falcon when Luke sensed something and looked toward the far horizon. He saw a yellow flash, a pinpoint of brightness against the dull blue of the sky, then several more flashes and then nothing more. Some minutes later, Luke heard the low rumble of what could have been distant thunder, but he knew that it was not; it was the sound of a shock wave hitting the atmosphere. 

 

.....................

 

 

It was a small lonely world that nobeing wanted; made of rock and stone and nothing more. The blue of the nitrogen-oxygen rich sky was perpetually dulled and darkened by dust particles caught in the high winds of the upper atmosphere; the terrain below showed signs of ancient bombardment and recent impacts. It was lifeless; nothing moved across the surface but dust, and if anybeing had ever visited, the dust erased the evidence. All of that made it a poor place to visit, unless a being needed an isolated location to test a new lightsaber.

Poe spotted a recent-looking crater that promised only shallow dust and enough sunlight to be tolerably warm, and set the Visitor down onto the smooth plain that was the crater interior. The ship landed with a solid thump, and remained stable, so as soon as the environmental sample said it was safe, Poe opened the ship entry.

There was little parade out the door; Dar Na stepped out first, followed by Poe, then Dar Noaa and Leia and finally Finn, with BB8 at his feet as always.

“What is that smell?” Finn was first to ask, but everyone’s face indicated they shared his question.

Dar Noaa bent down and slipped his hand through the dust, then brought it up to his face to examine it. Fine, powdery metallic particles sparkled on his fingers.

“Oxidation,” he said, “probably from the impact that made this crater, and dust; not the best thing to be breathing, but we won’t be here long,” he brushed the dust off, and then he looked at Finn. “Young Finn, are you ready?”

“I am.”

“Good,” Dar Noaa replied, “Since this may be the last few moments of your life, if there is anything you desire to say, you should do it now.”

The anticipation on Finn’s face became an expression of concern; he looked down at the lightsaber in his hand for a moment, then raised his head and went to Leia.

“General,” there was affection in his eyes as he addressed her, “thank you for everything.”

Leia smiled and hugged him.

“Now walk over there”, Dar Noaa instructed, and Finn obeyed, “No; further… a little further…”

 

As soon as she felt she could speak without Finn overhearing, Leia moved close to Dar Noaa and poked him in the side.

“Oh…” he responded to her touch, not her expression. “Thank you.”

“That wasn’t funny, Noah.”

“What wasn’t funny?”

“Telling Finn these could be his last moments.”

“I wasn’t joking,” He was surprised that she didn’t know about the inherent risk of constructing a lightsaber with one’s own hands and then testing it, but this was no time to discuss that. He looked back at Finn, “That should be far enough. Now stand as I taught you.”

 

Finn spread his legs and dug into the dust with his heels, making sure he was on firm footing. Then he brought his left hand over so both hands were grasping the lightsaber now and moved it to the right, so it was clear of his head. His heart was pounding and he kept forgetting to breathe; but at least the Sith was too far away to see how badly he was trembling.

“When you are ready, young Finn.”

Finn looked at the little group and smiled; false confidence was better than none.

He closed his eyes and pressed.

He heard a hum; at first it was high-pitched and faint, but then the frequency dropped and the volume rose and settled into the familiar sound he’d heard the two previous times he’d used a lightsaber.  He opened his eyes; the plasma blade was well formed and bright.

It was also colorless.

Finn felt the sting of disappointment; Dar Noaa had told him this was a possibility; he might not have had it long enough to imprint, and would have to spend time meditating on his crystal before it revealed any color to him, but he’d had hopes that it would not be the case. He let out a sigh and then swung the lightsaber out wide, unconsciously copying what he’d seen Kylo Ren do in the snow that night. The weapon responded to the motion; it brightened and then a ribbon of color appeared; it wound itself around the white plasma and then blended into it.

Golden yellow.

Finn stared at it in wonder; *this* was who he was – but what did it mean?

 

Back at the ship entry, Dar Noaa was asking himself the same question.

“What would you call that color?” he asked Leia, “Gold?”

“No,” she replied, “I’d say more yellow than that.”

“Perhaps it’s golden yellow?”

They both watched as Finn performed some simple exercises with the new lightsaber; his movement looked natural, as if he’d been born to it. With every stroke, his confidence grew and the golden yellow plasma blade’s glow became stronger.  Leia turned her head slightly; her eyes met Dar Noaa’s.

“You have absolutely no idea what it means," she said.

“None whatsoever,” he replied.

 

 

………………

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, the flagship of the First Order was imploding.

Hux’s private transport had launched and was pulling away from the Finalizer when the blast occurred, but the shock wave quickly caught up to it. The ship took the hit from behind; the shock wave set it spinning wildly and then accelerated it past the planet below.  

Hux gripped the workstation in his quarters to keep from sliding off his seat, and then he tapped the comlink. When neither of the two pilots he’d selected to accompany him on this mission responded immediately, he tapped it again, hitting it harder this time.

“Yes, General?” The pilot’s voice was garbled and distorted by the electromagnetic pulse that had washed over the ship just before the shock wave arrived.

“Get us out of this.”

“Doing our best, General,” the pilot replied. “Control should be reestablished in a few minutes.”

“I want this transport back on course.”

“Yes, General.”

Hux turned his attention from the comlink to his display; telemetry and images of the catastrophe behind him made him feel ill. He was losing more than just the vessel, more than its personnel and arms; he was losing whatever was left of his power.  What he should do, what he wanted to do, was return to the Finalizer immediately and see what could be done to save it. But he had direct orders from Leader Snoke to proceed to Jakku, and those orders were the only thing that could save him now, but only if he carried them out; and then only if Leader Snoke chose him over Ren. The incoming data clearly showed that this was an act of sabotage; the blast originated from where the Ren Transport had docked; Hux could use that to defend himself - if he got the chance.  

Hux felt the transport slowing; the shock wave had finally left it behind, and now the pilots would resume course to the landing coordinates on Jakku. He scanned the chart of the region on the display and saw nothing noted at the site Leader Snoke directed him to; the region was known to be the old Empire’s investment on Jakku; more than one secret base was buried there if one believed the stories.  At the moment, Hux didn’t care about that; all he cared about was getting there, getting in and out with whatever it was that Snoke wanted, and then getting away.  Since Leader Snoke wanted Hux to deliver the item to him personally, he would soon be on his way to someplace that Ren would never be able to find.

It was a small hope of survival, but it was all he had.

 

………………..

 

 

Back on the lonely little world, Dar Na had quickly tired of watching the small spectacle happening outside the ship, so he returned to his usual seat in the cockpit to keep watch while the others were busy with Finn. He had very mixed feelings about the event; part of him was interested and even proud of Finn because he considered it a great honor for anyone to receive training from Dar Noaa; but another part of him was uneasy because Dar Noaa was Sith, and it didn’t seem right for a Sith to train someone who could possibly become Jedi and therefore an enemy.

But Dar Na knew that Dar Noaa followed his own path in most matters regardless of the consequences; it was often a subject at family gatherings. Dar Noaa was his mother’s favorite cousin; so when she asked her youngest son to ‘watch over him’, Dar Na had to obey. Looking back, he knew now that she hadn’t sent him to Dar Noaa to watch over him; she’d sent him to Dar Noaa to get her son offworld, away and safe, while she attended that meeting. His mother didn’t trust the Republic at all, but she was willing to attend and hear them out. And like virtually all of the remaining Sith with any standing, she paid for that willingness with her life.

That was not the Republic’s doing, though. Dar Na wondered if anything good might have come from that meeting had the First Order not entered the game and destroyed Hosnian Prime.

A flash of activity on the waveform display caught his attention; he only managed to see the very last seconds of something green. He was asking himself if he’d just imagined it when the display lit up again, only this time it was red. It flashed twice; then went dark again.

Dar Na was paying attention now.

The waveform lit up again, this time it was an erupting volcano; red data streams poured across the entire surface, scrolling by so fast that they blurred together; the light filled the cockpit with a fiery glow.  Dar Na shouted for Dar Noaa, leaped from the seat and ran for the entry, but he’d been heard and Dar Noaa was already in the corridor on his way with the others trailing behind. Dar Na almost dragged the older Sith to the cockpit, explaining excitedly as he pulled. 

As soon as Dar Noaa saw what was happening, he went straight to the waveform and placed his hand on it to regain control, but the ship rejected him with a powerful shock that knocked him off his feet and threw him backwards. Poe and Leia grabbed him, but they were only able to stop his flight and ease his landing on the floor, not prevent it.

Leia dropped to her knees beside him and checked; he was unconscious but alive. Finn went for the medical kit; Dar Na knelt down beside Leia to help support Dar Noaa and Poe walked toward the waveform.

“*Stand down*, Poe!” Leia shouted. “Nobody else touches it!”

Poe stopped and dropped himself into his seat, feeling angry and helpless.  All they could do now was watch and wait while the Visitor’s waveform display blazed on.

 

 

.....................

 

 

A dull thump followed by a slight lean to port notified Hux that his transport had landed. He was about to tap the comlink for confirmation when he heard and then felt, a strong vibration coming from below that frightened him; had the ship landed in one of Jakku’s infamous sinking sands? His hand fell on the comlink instantly.

“Are we sinking?”

“No, General,” the pilot’s voice replied calmly, “We’re not sinking; we’re being lowered mechanically.”

Hux brought up the transport’s security displays; sand was pouring like rain around the transport as it moved downward, blocking out everything beyond. The topside view showed an open bay and above that sky. The underside view showed something, but it was obscured by the downfall of sand. Hux watched nervously as the open bay above grew smaller and smaller; wherever they were going was truly deep inside the planet. Then the sand tapered off and stopped, and Hux started to see structures below.

Illuminated only by the light from the open bay above, the structures were impossible to identify, but there was no question in Hux’s mind that these were anything other than old Empire construction. The shapes changed as the Transport went deeper and deeper down, until it was surrounded by them, and like a canyon in twilight, the shadows loomed long and large.

Suddenly the Transport came to a stop; there was the sound of machines in motion, and it began to move again, this time sideways, moving off the landing platform and onto some kind of conveyor. The platform started to rise again as soon as the transport was clear of it; and Hux watched the security displays as the gloom surrounding his ship grew deeper and then became blackness.  Now his view was limited to the range of the Transport’s lights.

He was sitting there wondering when an incoming coded message appeared.  It came directly from Supreme Leader Snoke:

 

Access Code:  HYaL   

Location: Cryolab 15: Slot 7: Secure Container 1

Go Alone

Extreme Caution

Report when retrieved

Stand by for further instruction

 

Hux let out a breath; he hadn’t done anything alone in years. He could simply order one of the pilots to accompany him, but Supreme Leader’s message was precise; he’d be a fool to ignore it.  He’d need to change into something more suitable than his command uniform; grab himself a support pack, and get started.

His fingers felt cold.

 

 

......................

 

 

Aboard the Visitor, the waveform display had gone dark and silent by the time Dar Noaa regained consciousness. Aside from singed fingers and an aching, stiff arm, he was unharmed. Leia protested, but he insisted on getting up and returning to the waveform. Once there, he hesitated to repeat his previous mistake and tried to get the ship to respond to a verbal command.

“Dar Noaa,” he announced himself, “confirm.”

No response.

Dar Noaa was concerned; no, he was terrified; if the vessel wouldn’t respond to the simplest of verbal commands, they would be in real trouble - this was not a planet they could survive on for long. He would have to try the contact command again. Leia sensed his intentions and moved to intercept his hand before he could touch the waveform; she gripped his wrist hard; if he was going to take this risk, he’d be taking it with her.

That stopped him, just as she knew it would, and it made him angry.

“Leia...”

The waveform flashed green in front of them.

They looked at each other; he shrugged, “Why not?”

“Leia Organa,” she announced herself, “confirm.”

“Confirmed.” The ship replied, mimicking her own voice.

Leia dropped her free hand onto the waveform and the command display appeared for her, filling the cockpit with a soft green glow.

“Ask for a status update,” Dar Noaa coached.

“Status Update.”

The display streamed event logs and alerts; then stopped at one particular entry.

“Received: Data Download,” the waveform reported, “Source: ID-002.”

“What?” Dar Noaa’s tone was one of disbelief. “Ask for confirmation!”

“Confirm,” Leia commanded.

“Confirmed.”

 

Dar Noaa was stunned; only a very few select beings in the Republic even knew that there was another vessel in the First Order’s possession that was similar to the Visitor. The Visitor was the prototype; the other was a custom order; both were based on identical technology, but unlike the Visitor, the other vessel was built for military and not survey purposes. He’d never seen it himself, but he knew who it belonged to. The waveform display revealed the size and extent of the download; it was massive; it was the kind of act that might be done as a last attempt to preserve the records of a doomed vessel...

“Ask for point of origin,” he directed.

“Point of Origin,” Leia commanded.

“System: Jakku,” the waveform reported, “Planet: Jakku.

 

“We’re not far from there,” Poe said from the pilot seat; his tone was suggestive; Poe knew Jakku now and he felt it calling to him. “Maybe we should check it out.”

“I agree,” Leia replied; she looked to Dar Noaa, “How about it?”

“All right.”

His reply was subdued and hesitant, as if, for once, he was totally unsure of himself. Leia made note of it; once they jumped, she’d talk to him about it. Until then, Leia the General was in command.

“Poe is pilot,” she instructed the ship, “Confirm.”

“Confirmed.”

Poe leaned forward and shouldered Dar Noaa aside, then he placed his hand carefully onto the waveform. The display split itself to accept him.

“Okay, Viz,” Poe’s fingers got to work, “Set me a course for Jakku...”

 

Watching silently from behind them; Finn felt uneasy. Like the General and Poe, he could feel Jakku pulling on him, calling him back there; and he knew he had to go.

_Why does everyone want to go back to Jakku?  
_

He’d asked that question before, but he would not ask again; soon he would know.

 

..................

 

 


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit where it belongs:
> 
> The name "Mrrorbright" and the words to the song are taken from the Star Wars novel "Bloodline" by Claudia Gray. It's more politics than action, but it's one of those stories that tells you more than you thought it did on the first reading. If you bought "Bloodline" and found it tepid, I highly recommend that you give it a second read.

  

-20-

 

 

 

The Finalizer was fighting for its life. Anyone permitted to escape had gone, and those few remaining on board had only one assignment – stabilize the vessel and move it out of orbit, or die with it.

Engineering was gone, breached in the first explosion; along with most of its staff, so saving the ship fell to the few engineers who were in other parts of the ship when it happened. They were making do on the Bridge, commandeering any and all still-functioning systems for the sole purpose of managing emergency generators and batteries, virtually all of which were required to power the Finalizer’s positioning thrusters. Using short controlled releases of energy, the ship was pulling away from Jakku at a slow crawl; acceleration was agonizingly slow to develop. The catastrophe crew was doubtful they could achieve breakaway, but they knew their duty and sat at their seats, eyes glued to the display; beyond the universe of the positioning system, they were blind, and they didn’t care…

 

The Visitor’s waveform display sounded the alarm the instant it dropped out of Hyperspace, and Poe brought the ship to an almost complete stop, then he allowed it to drift. Any scanner that detected its presence would either identify the ship as “space float”, a chunk of asteroid or comet core, or miss it entirely due to the magic of the hull’s composite coatings. Disguised now as “nothing much”, the Visitor and its crew had time to find out what the alarm was about.

It didn’t take long; the derelict Finalizer and its trail of debris appeared in the holographic display within seconds, and the waveform display began to scroll scanning data, which swiftly became highlighted sites in the image.

“Are you seeing this?” Poe asked. It was a rhetorical question, because they were all in the cockpit watching as the incoming data added detail after detail to the image. “Big ship’s in big trouble.”

“Yes,” Dar Noaa peered into the image, looking for evidence of the one thing he was sure would never appear. “They’re trying to break orbit.”

“It’s *alone*,” Finn noticed, “Where are the escorts? I don’t see even one.”

“You’re right,” Dar Noaa took notice now, too; the Finalizer wasn’t just crippled - it appeared to be abandoned. “Was there a core breach?”

“No,” Poe replied, “nothing but background radiation and traces from the debris field.”

“It looks like it took hits in the port and starboard hanger bays,” Finn pointed as he watched the image develop. What remained of the Tie fighter bays was now a hole that cut through the ship. “Did the Resistance do this?”

“No,” Leia answered, “We’d never be able to get that close.”

“Look at the damage pattern,” Dar Noaa added his insight without revealing how he arrived at it. “It suggests that this was some kind of *internal* detonation.”

“An accident?” Leia asked.

“Perhaps…”

“Something else?”

“Perhaps.”

The image became more detailed with every passing second; now it showed multiple locations where there was activity; several large generators and multiple battery stores revealed themselves with heat signatures.

“It’s still got some power.” Finn said.

“Not for long,” Poe replied, “if they’re using them for propulsion, they’re burning everything they’ve got.”

“Activity means it hasn’t been abandoned,” Dar Noaa said. “How many still on board?”

The waveform display paused for a few seconds while it scanned, and then a few dozen tiny lights appeared in the image, all clustered in or near the bridge.

“Suicide crew,” Finn explained, “Save the ship or die with it.”

“Are you telling me,” Dar Noaa asked, “that the personnel of this *entire* vessel has been reduced to only these few?”

“Yes.”

“Hmmm…”

Leia knew that tone of voice; it usually preceded Dar Noaa saying something she didn’t want to hear, but she couldn’t help herself.

“What?” she asked.

“I was just thinking,” Dar Noaa made a face as he spoke, “It’s possible that everything I need is right there, on that ship...”

“So let’s take it.” Finn said.

“What… did…you just say?”

“Let’s take the ship!” Finn stuck his finger inside the image, pointing. “There’s a service bay right there; belongs to sanitation services. It’s tiny, but I think we’ll fit; that is, if the bay door still works and there’s any atmosphere available once we land…”

“Show me more.”

Leia watched as Finn gave Dar Noaa a hands-on tour of the Finalizer bridge; the small holographic image before them was deceptively simplistic. The Finalizer was gigantic and loaded with weapons and the Visitor was tiny and practically unarmed; this was a crazy idea and it probably, almost certainly, would not end well. But she was in the cockpit with two Siths, a reckless pilot and a belatedly-adolescent Stormtrooper; there really was no way she wasn’t about to become a pirate.

“Noah,” Leia made the attempt, but she could see that his eyes were already changing as the idea took him over, “we need to think about this…”

Dar Noaa turned and looked at her for a few seconds, but then looked back at the image of the Finalizer and stared intently into it. Leia sensed it; he was using the Force; seeing the ship through time, then and now and what might be yet to come. He didn’t try to draw her in to share the vision, so she waited for him to come back from it.

A long moment passed, but then Dar Noaa looked back at her.

“Young pilot,” he kept his eyes on hers as he addressed Poe; it was a silent acknowledgement that he’d heard her, “take us in closer and run a deep scan; find a route to their bridge; we’ll see if it’s possible.” Then he gave her a small smile.

“No harm in taking a look…”

 

...……..

 

 

On Jakku, deep below the surface, Hux was making his way slowly through a maze of dark corridors. Beyond the range of his light, it was totally black; and within the circle of light that was his universe now, the floor sparkled with a light coating of fine sand. The only thing keeping him from panic and flight was the familiar layout of the facility; old Empire design was the basis for New Order design, so the corridors were all clearly identified at regular intervals and there was a Directory at every intersection, so the route to Cryolab 15 was a long but unchallenging walk.

When he reached the entry to Cryolab 15, he found it dark and locked. The security panel seemed dead; but went to it and keyed in the Access code anyway. He was surprised and relived when he heard the sound of the entry unlocking; but then dismayed to realize that it had not opened. He had to work to start it sliding open and then push hard to make the opening wide enough to pass through.

The dark cryolab was startlingly clean; Hux scanned it with his light and saw no trace of sand anywhere; this room had been sealed tight since the day it was abandoned. It also had a distinct odor; a faint and aged, but still sickening, trace of death. Hux searched the room with his light, but found no bodies to account for the odor; whatever the smell was from, it was not here. But the smell of death, even death that happened so long ago, made the hairs on Hux’s skin stand on end.

He blamed it on the cold and not fear, then shook it off and proceeded to the back of the room where the Storage section should be; and he found the door about where he expected to. It was unlocked, so he opened it and stepped inside. It was very cold and the smell of death of was stronger now, urging Hux to hurry as he searched for Slot 7. He located it quickly and choked out a harsh, relieved laugh when he found that Secure Container 1 was the first thing he saw there.

Secure Container 1 was a metal cube about a meter on all sides, mounted on a frame that thankfully had wheels, because when Hux tested the weight by trying to lift it, he found it to be extraordinarily heavy. And cold, too; whatever was stored inside had been in a very deep freeze for a very long time.

Hux wasted no time freeing the container assembly from the slot frame, and was soon finding his way back through the dark corridors, using one hand to light his way and the other to pull the container. The wheels made a grinding sound as they passed over the sand-covered floor, and the ride became jerky; so did the light, and Hux had to work harder and harder to keep moving.

By the time he reached his transport and pulled his load up the ramp and inside, he was both exhausted and irritated.

“Immediate departure!” He shouted.

No reply.

Angry now, Hux abandoned the container and strode into the cockpit to confront his pilots.

“I said; immediate departure!”

Neither of the black uniformed figures replied, nor did they move; Hux reached out and touched the pilot; the body fell forward and then dropped against the control panel, its helmet making a dull clang on impact. Hux was turning to check the copilot when mindless dread, in the form of an invisible hand grabbing him by the throat, seized him and lifted him off his feet.

And then he heard a dark, threatening - and terrifyingly familiar – voice come from the shadows.

“Hello, Armitage,” Ren said. “I think it’s time you and I had a talk…”

 

………………

 

 

On the surface of Jakku, the Millenium Falcon was making a low circle over Carbon Ridge. Chewbacca was piloting while Rey and Luke searched for a place to set the ship down. And as they worked, the cockpit was filled with radio chatter as anyone on Jakku who had access to broadcasting equipment shared stories about the mysterious light in the sky and the thunder and winds and that followed it. Speculation was running wild, though, quickly drowning out those few who insisted that it was just a space incident and escape vessels had been seen; so as the planet’s rotation brought night to every region in turn, new stories would be born.

Rey wasn’t interested in any of that; her mind was completely focused on one thing. She was broadcasting, too, but she didn’t know it; the memories that were driving her to find Ren, to get him back, were flashing inside Luke’s head as he scanned the countryside below.

The evidence was clear: Maz’s intuition was right after all; Rey had feelings for Ben, and it was obvious that he felt something for her, too.

Why Ben chose to give her back when he did was not clear, but Luke was sure it was for the ‘right’ reasons; and as tragic as it all was, Luke envied his nephew. Luke had done many things for the ‘right” reasons in his life, but he’d never allowed himself to care for anyone the way Ben cared for Rey, and he’d never let anyone get close enough to care for him the way Rey cared for Ben, either. There was something truly sad in the knowledge that although so many beings in the galaxy had respect and admiration for Luke Skywalker, he had never known and would never know what the young pair had shared on Dagobah. A Jedi was permitted few regrets, but for the moment, Luke felt the pain of a desire unfulfilled.

Below, Luke could see the wreckage that was Carbon Ridge; numerous craters of various sizes filled the view; those would be the aging scars of the reported destruction of the Empire’s secret base there. Spikes of twisted metal jutted up from the sand, revealing the outline of what was once construction that now was almost buried by time.

Yet, there was something about the view that made Luke uneasy.

He scanned it intently, looking from Carbon Ridge, towards Kelvin Ravine and the badlands and back again. What wasn’t he seeing?

Chewbacca mewed that he’d spotted a good landing site, and then turned the Falcon and eased the ship down. The terrain was just as rough as it had been at Kelvin Ravine, and this time the hike was almost entirely uphill and very steep, like Ahch’tu, so this time R2D2 had to stay behind with Chewy and Maz. Rey took the lead; the familiar ground offered no challenge to her at all, and Luke found himself working hard just to keep her in sight.

When he finally caught up and joined her on the highest part of the ridge, she barely took no notice. She was scanning the view rapidly her head turning left and right, pausing when she thought she saw something, but then resuming her search when it proved to be nothing. Her face revealed her confusion and disappointment.

Luke didn’t say anything to her; she was new to the Force, so her expectations were much too high. He would let her struggle with it for awhile so she would learn the difference between knowledge and hope.

He was standing beside her patiently, not scanning but simply taking in the view in its entirety when the thought came to him. The ruins at Carbon Ridge were exactly what he’d been told they’d be, exactly where he was told they’d be found. On a world where so much was left to superstition and lore, the location of the “secret” research base, the Empire’s – no, Palpatine’s – special project was as precise as one of Tekka’s maps. That this place marked the ruins of ‘something’ was obvious to anyone who cared to look.

But Darth Sidius was never one to be obvious about *anything*.

He looked across the badlands and thought about the stories, the mysterious lights and bizarre wanderers, the deadly caves, the restless ocean of shifting sand…

_From here to Tekka…_

It was time to interrupt Rey’s lesson.

“Rey,” he touched her shoulder gently, “We’re going down,” he pointed, “… there.”

“Onto the Goazon?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“I need to feel it under my feet.”

“All right.”

 

……………….

 

 

High above Jakku, the crew of the Visitor was busy preparing.

The Waveform display was grinding through data, building a detailed hologram of the Finalizer and mapping a route to the bridge. The young males were in their quarters readying themselves and their weapons, leaving Dar Noaa and Leia alone in the cockpit. He’d put her question off several times while they were in hyperspace on their way here, and Leia had let it go, but now she felt that she had to ask him one more time.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

He’d always been a terrible liar; every time he’d told her that, she translated it to “something I won’t tell you.” In the past, she always accepted that answer, but things were different now.

“You know something you don’t want to tell me.”

He looked at her, considered, and then sighed in surrender.

“I think I know what happened here,” he gestured to the holographic display, singling out the hanger bays, and the huge round hole that joined them now. “Right *here*, the Knights of Ren Transport performed a data dump and then self-destructed.”

“The Knights of Ren? My son…”

“Yes.”

“How do you know?”

“The Visitor isn’t unique; there were two vessels,” Dar Noaa explained. “Only two. We have this one and the other was in the hands of the Knights of Ren. It was your son’s personal transport; a gift from his Supreme Leader, and the Kylo of Ren could do with it as he pleased,” he paused, just long enough to review it one more time, confirming his analysis to himself before speaking. “And I believe for some reason, it pleased him to send *you* something from the ship before he vaporized it.”

“He’s not dead, Noah; I’d know if he was,” Leia replied. “And he’s not *here*; I can feel it.”

“I am aware of that; that’s not why I was holding back,” He couldn’t hide it from her, he didn’t know why he even tried, except that he always seemed to say the right thing in the wrong way. The simple truth was best. “I didn’t know how to start a discussion about him with you.”

Leia understood what he was telling her; Ben was her son, her child; but now he was also an enemy. He’d killed his own father. It was understandable that Dar Noaa was afraid that her son would kill his mother, too, with the same indifference, if given the chance - and that would put him in the unthinkable position of having to protect the woman he loved from the person she loved the most; a confrontation that could only end in tragedy. No wonder he had trouble with it.

“Promise me,” he took her hands in his, “that you will stay here – in the Visitor – while we board the Finalizer. I need you here, *safe*, so I can think clearly. And if I tell you to go, you go; you take the ship and you *go*.”

“I’m a big girl, Noah,” she countered gently, holding his hands tight to make her point. “I’m not leaving anyone behind,”

He frowned.

“You’re on notice now,” This time it was the General speaking; he needed that reassurance. “Get in, get what you can, and get out.”

“All right,” he sighed. This outcome was what he’d expected anyway. “You’re on notice now, too: work on the password; it has to be something he’d expect you to guess.”

“I will.”

He released her hands and turned his attention back to the image of the Finalizer. It occurred to Leia that he should be taking a weapon along; not that he needed a weapon, he *was* a weapon, but she’d feel better if she sent him off with something ‘real’, like her dagger, which was back in her quarters. She tapped his shoulder.

“I’ll be right back.”

As she passed the open door of the sleeper where Poe and Finn were busy inspecting and loading the only blasters on the ship, she heard something that brought her to a halt. She turned to the door and looked inside; completely absorbed in their preparations, neither of the young Resistance fighters noticed her there. Poe was humming softly as he charged the blaster in his hands.

“That song,” Leia’s voice startled them both, “where did you learn it?”

“Oh,” Poe replied, “I don’t know; it’s been stuck in my head for days. Was I humming too loud?”

“No, not at all,” Leia said, “It just sounded like… Poe, will you sing it for me? Now?”

“I’ll try; it comes and goes…”

“Please.”

Embarrassed as he was by the request, Poe could see that the stupid little song he’d picked up someplace and could not forget seemed important to her. He searched his memory.

“Mirrorbright, shines the moon; those who loved you, but are gone…”

 

………………

 

 

Down on the surface of Jakku, Rey and Luke had made the steep climb down Carbon Ridge and were walking into the dry desolation that was the Goazon.

“We’re far from the Sinking Fields,” Rey directed as she led the way, “but there are still plenty of sink pits to avoid out here. Even ground that looks solid underneath your feet can suddenly open up and swallow you whole.”

“Have you ever seen something like that happen?”

“Only long distance; I once saw a quadjumper set down on what looked like a perfectly good spot, but then it slipped out of sight, as if the ground had just opened up right underneath it.”

“Do you remember where it landed?”

“Way off… that way.”

“Can you take us there?’

“Oh…,” Rey hesitated; there was a lot more than just the occasional sink pit in the Goazon to fear. This would not be an easy or quick trip. “If we go very, very slow…”

 

…………………

 

 

Beneath the surface of Jakku, it was finally quiet aboard the transport ship.

Strapped tightly into the copilot’s seat, Hux’s body was leaning forward, his head slumped down. He was out; almost comatose, and he was probably going to stay that way for hours. Ren’s head ached; he’d been much too hard on Hux while extracting information and now he was paying the price for it – Hux was useless for the time being and Ren’s head felt like it was going to explode.

But before Hux let out that telltale shriek and went blank, Ren had managed to extract a great deal out of him; some of it was even useful.

And a lot of it was surprising.

He’d been wrong about Armitage Hux; not about his ambition, but about how he came to possess it. Hux had been born for a single purpose; his devotion to the First Order was not by choice, but by relentless indoctrination from the day he was able to understand words. In a perverse, twisted way, Hux was a lot like Ben Solo; everything he thought, everything he believed – and he did *believe* – was planned manipulation intended to put Hux exactly where he ended up.

_You poor, pathetic bastard._

Ren snorted quietly at the thought; those words could easily apply to him, too. Ren saw disturbing similarities between Hux and himself; they actually had a lot in common. Perhaps that was why Snoke kept them at each other’s throats continuously; to prevent them from learning that fact and becoming a problem. They’d never had even one personal conversation, that is, until now…

_The Finalizer was starving._

That was literally how Hux saw it; not in terms of how it affected his ambition, but in terms of how it affected his command. He was incapable of compassion on the personal level, but his concern for the First Order was genuine. He knew nothing else. And he was totally focused on getting his personnel fed and supplied before all other issues would be addressed. Ren solved that problem for him, but only because Snoke had allowed it to happen. Hux probably never recognized the pattern; Snoke was indifferent to the needs – and the value of – his obedient servants.

_Starkiller Base, Kylo Ren and his Knights, and now the Finalizer – all discarded._

Ren knew why he’d been discarded; once Snoke found out about the girl, he lost interest in Ren and decided to trade up. What was Snoke trading up to now? What could be bigger than the power of the First Order? Hux had no idea; the reason behind the loss of his military treasures was a mystery to him. Ren had no rational ideas, either; every time he considered the clues, they led straight to impossibilities and madness. In fact, there was only one being who held all the answers; and that being had a lot to answer for.

_Snoke._

Up until now, Ren had acted foolishly; he was reckless and *sentimental*; Snoke was right about that being a problem. Delivering the lie that the girl was dead was short-sighted; a delaying tactic at best; Snoke would quickly perceive the truth and the hunt for her would continue. It wasn’t the hunt Ren needed to stop; he needed to stop Snoke. It was an impossible task; if he could stop Snoke, it would be no small accomplishment; Ren remembered that Supreme Leader had warned him about that.

“ _No one knows the limits of his own power until it has been tested to the utmost; as yours has not been. That day may yet come.”_

Turned out Snoke was right about that, too.

As soon as Hux regained consciousness, Ren would make him contact Supreme Leader for the destination co-ordinates. According to Hux’s mind, Supreme Leader was so anxious to obtain the container that he’d *ordered* his General to continue the mission and desert his command at the moment of disaster. Hux had absolutely no idea what was in the container or why Snoke was so eager to obtain it, but Ren would know what was in there soon enough anyway; he was going to open it just as soon as he made the jump.

Maybe he’d take Hux along for the ride…

 

……………….

 

 

Leia returned to the Visitor cockpit so quickly that she startled Dar Noaa out of an intense study of Finalizer.

“That was quick.”

“I think I know the password.”

“That was quick, too.”

“Poe gave it to me.”

“Poe?”

Leia went to the waveform and put her hand on it; the display appeared.

“Open source ID-002.”

“Identity code required.”  the waveform replied.

“Mirrorbright.”

“Unrecognized.”

Leia let out a hiss of frustration. It *had* to be right!

“Poe...” Dar Noaa was beside her now, confused but trying to help, “knew the password?”

“Mirrorbright; it’s a song; something from my childhood on Alderaan,” Leia explained, “I used to sing it to Ben when he was little, and he’d sing it to me. It was our secret code for…” she fought to keep her emotions under control. “Nobody else knew about it.”

“But then how did Poe…?”

“All I can think is that Ben *gave* it to Poe when he was a prisoner,” Leia’s fingers were tapping madly on the Waveform as she spoke. “He was trying to contact me; I know it!”

“Leia…”

“Don’t say *anything*, Noah!” She pressed hard on the waveform as if that might make a difference. “Mirrorbright!”

“Unrecognized.” the waveform replied.

“Damn!”

“Maybe you need… more of it,” Dar Noaa suggested meekly, “Maybe it’s the melody…”

Leia looked at him for a second; he might be right. She took a deep breath and calmed herself; the melody and the words came to her like long lost friends, transporting her through time, back to when love was as easy to find as a smile on a little boy’s face.

“Mirrorbright, shines the moon,

Those who loved you, but are gone…”

 

The melody flowed out of her; it drifted away invisibly, through the Visitor’s hull into space itself, and then it descended, speeding downward, finding its way through atmosphere and rock and sand and then through a metal barrier that was powerless against it.

And in the darkness there, it found its target, who was already nursing a miserable headache…

 

 

 

……………..

 

 

 

 


	21. Chapter 21

 

-21-

 

 

“Mirrorbright, shines the moon,

Those who loved you, but are gone…”

_  
_

_The sound of his mother’s voice filled his head. Memories flashed; his entire childhood recalled in an instant…_

_Her eyes, her smile, and the song; at bedtime, when he was unhappy, when he was sick and sometimes just because. Her patience, her forgiveness and the faith in her voice when she would defend him against anyone - and everyone -who blamed him for reasons he didn’t understand at the time._

_And then the invisible tears he could sense on her face when she told him he had to go away for awhile and then, so many years later, the silent cry of anguish she made that only he could hear…  
_

_Mother!_

Ren put his hands to his head as if they could dam the surge of memories that were too painful to bear, but it was a futile gesture against the merciless current that dragged him along.

_Her telling him he had to go away; him not telling her that he’d heard what his father had said; that Ben was ‘too dark and dangerous to handle anymore’. He’d been saying those things forever, and this time, she took his side…  
_

_Han Solo._

_Ben hated him.  
_

_Ben hated being Han Solo’s son; not because of the continuous, unwanted attention it brought, not because of the very public responsibility that came with being the Hero’s son, not even because of the inescapable disappointments when Ben Solo didn’t measure up to his father’s reputation – or his hopes. There was only one reason Ben hated Han Solo:_

_He never came._

_So many nights, so many days, wasted on waiting; waiting to hear his father call his name, waiting to look up and see him there. Even worse, having to endure the endless stories about how Han Solo showed up someplace else and saved the day. And the stories were always true; the locations and the details changed, but Han Solo always showed up and always saved the day. There was only one being in the whole galaxy for whom Han Solo never showed up and never saved from anything._

_And when Han Solo finally did show up, it was too late...  
_

Ren pressed harder; maybe if he crushed his skull, it would stop…

_“I know what I have to do, but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?”_

_“Yes. Anything.”_

_It was the final test of his worthiness; Supreme Leader Snoke had said so himself. Kylo Ren would correct the mistake Luke Skywalker made; and in doing so, he would sever his connection to the Light once and for all and claim his grandfather’s destiny._

_He’d be free of the pain.  
_

_When the moment came, it was easy; it was as if the lightsaber ignited itself while Han Solo just stood there and let it happen. That should have been the end of it, but only seconds after he’d let the body fall into the depths below, something inside him broke free and cried out._

_“Mother!”_

_Suddenly the fog that obscured his memory of everything that came after that moment lifted and he saw himself in the snow, burned and bleeding out, and words echoing in his head as he watched her run away…  
_

_“Han Solo can’t save you.”_

_When Kylo Ren said those words to the girl, he was saying them to Ben Solo, too. It was supposed to be the Kylo’s moment of triumph; he should have been euphoric, but he wasn’t. The promised freedom of the Darkness had not come; instead, he was struggling, spiraling out of control, barely aware of what he was doing. He should have killed them both and been done with it, but he hesitated - he didn’t know why - and then he made stupid mistakes. He blamed his injury, not his weakness, for his failing resolve and kept calling the power; but blow after blow on the wound only brought a few seconds of focused rage, and that wasn’t enough.  
_

_He put the traitor down, but failed to follow through with a death stroke. And then, out of nowhere, he heard himself making the girl an offer; her answer came in the form of blue fire against his face…_

Ren’s hands slid forward and down, covering his eyes and that scar; but the images wouldn’t let go; they flashed faster and faster.

_“Take off that mask,”_

_“You’re a monster!”_

_“You don’t need it!”_

_“We’re in this together.”_

_“The face of my son!”_

_“I can help; let me.”_

_“My son is alive.”_

_“It’s okay, you’re okay.”_

_“You know it’s true.”_

_“Maybe it’s *our* dream.”_

**_“Ben!”_ **

Hearing his father shout his name kicked Ren out of the vision, but it took several minutes to remember who he was, where he was. He had no way to tell how long he’d been trapped in it, but he checked Hux and found him still unconscious, so it hadn’t been very long.

A terrible loneliness seized him; he missed Rey. Giving her back was the right thing, the only thing, really, to do; but that knowledge did little to ease the emptiness without her. If she was still with him, she’d try to help, but what he’d just experienced was something he would never want to inflict on her, even though she was part of it.

This time he had to face who he was and what he’d done *alone*.

There was a certain justice in that - he murdered Han Solo. The one time in his life when Ben Solo really, truly hoped Han Solo would *not* show up was the one time he did, and the last time he would show up for anyone, anywhere, ever again.

It would be so easy to blame Snoke; it was Snoke who put the idea out there and encouraged it, then urged it; spinning the boy Ben Solo’s resentment and the man Kylo Ren’s ambition into the belief that killing his father was necessary, even crucial, to fulfill his destiny. That was a fantasy, served to an audience eager to believe. It was Snoke who manipulated everything from the beginning, but he wasn’t the one who pressed the lightsaber tip against Han Solo’s chest and ignited it. Ren knew the truth: *he* did it. Ben Solo did it to get even and Kylo Ren did it to make the pain stop.

It was unforgiveable; his mother…

His *mother*.

Suddenly Ren realized it; Snoke wanted Han Solo dead, but he wasn’t the target, he was the weapon used to strike the blow - the real target was his mother! And Ren knew why; he remembered a passage in the book he’d borrowed from Luke Skywalker. It described how to make a Jedi fall to the Dark Side:

_First, they must be tempted._

For Ben Solo, the *temptation* was acceptance. The Knights of Ren offered him the belonging he wanted so desperately.

_Second, they must be tested._

For Ben Solo, the *test* came at Luke Skywalker’s Academy. The Knights of Ren helped him cross a line drawn in fire and blood; to take a step too far.

_Finally, they must be forced to submit._

For Ben Solo, *submission* came when Snoke let him stay and prove his worthiness with the Knights of Ren.

Snoke *had* him; he was content. He did what was required of him; he believed in the mission, even the part about killing the last Jedi. And his father? Han Solo meant nothing to Kylo Ren, so he was no threat to Snoke’s control. There was not one thing in the galaxy that meant enough to Kylo Ren to be a threat to Snoke.

Except for Leia Organa.

Ben Solo’s bond with his mother was strong; Snoke had known that from the start. Kylo Ren never talked about her; but Snoke did, usually in dark, vague, references. The last time he did that, the reference was unspoken; Snoke ordered the obliteration of the star system where the Resistance stronghold was located, which by inclusion, meant obliterating *her*. Ren tried to stall him with the girl, but when he reached the Interrogation chamber to collect her, he found her gone. That set off a fit of panicked rage and pursuit and the confrontation on the high crosswalk with Han Solo.

It was a horrific twist of fate; Han Solo showed up and saved Ben’s mother, only to die at the hands of his own son, who was desperately trying to save her, too. His mother had no way to know that; she would only know that her son butchered his father – her heart would be broken forever; she could never forgive him, so all three Solos were destroyed at the same moment.

It was the perfect murder.

 

…………                     

 

Simultaneously, high above, on the Surface of Jakku, two unintentional eavesdroppers were taken by surprise.

Luke Skywalker looked up at the sky.

_Leia! She’s *there*._

Rey’s eyes dropped to the ground.

_Ren! He’s *here*.  
_

At first, neither noticed the other’s involvement; Luke scanned the sky, not knowing what he was looking for, but knowing it was there; Rey searched all around, but found her eyes returning to the ground at her feet no matter where she looked.

Luke quickly sensed that Leia was safe and she was not alone. It amused him that Dar Noaa mattered enough now that Luke sensed the Sith’s presence, too. Neither of them was trying to reach Luke, though; something else was happening there; when he returned to the Falcon, he would contact them. Then he noticed that Rey was walking around him; she was circling, moving further from him with each completed orbit; her eyes fixed on the ground beneath her.

“Rey?”

She stopped and looked at him.

“What are you doing?” he asked

“He’s here!” She answered excitedly. “Don’t you feel it?” She looked down at the ground again. “I know it sounds crazy, but he’s *right here*!”

It didn’t sound crazy to Luke at all. He’d sensed only Leia, but his bond with her was so strong that it could block others; that was why he’d missed that young Stormtrooper on the Resistance transport until Dar Noaa told him about Finn’s presence there.

Luke raised a hand to settle the girl; then he centered himself and searched.

Far below and some distance away, Luke sensed Ben Solo. Something tremendous and terrible was happening to the boy; Luke could not see what it was, but he could feel the Darkness devouring his nephew; his sister’s child was at the very edge of the abyss…

Luke reached out, sending Light and love.

_The Force is with you._

                                                                                                        

..............................

 

Deep below, the Darkness was winning.

Arms crossed over his chest as if he was dead, Ren bowed his head and sank into despair. How could he think that he might be able to confront and then *defeat* a being like Snoke? He was ridiculous, laughable, a cosmic joke; because, like Ben Solo before him, Ren was weak and foolish.                                                                        

Like his father.

Rey saw it; he would never be as strong as Darth Vader. His father saw it, too; Snoke would crush him just as Han Solo predicted. Fear, guilt and shame combined; coiling around his body and soul like a deadly snake, crushing him, pulling him deeper into the pit.

He felt his hand drop from his chest; he felt it touch the hilt of his lightsaber, taking hold.

 _Do it;_ a voice in his head whispered _. Make it stop._

 He tightened his grip, resigning himself…

 But then something intervened; Ren felt it touch his hand, lifting it.

_The Force is with you._

A new vision blazed in his head…

_Fiery red lightning flashes in the blackness; it’s joined by blue, and then yellow. Energy crackles, then explodes as the three swirl together; spinning faster and faster, blending; becoming one._

_Pure, White, Immeasurable_ Power _.  
_

_He has what he needs…_

 

It was over.

Released again, Ren sat up straight and sucked in air as if it was his very first breath, but the release only lasted for a split second; the visions were not done with him yet.

_Quiet; warm air, filtered light; the fragrance of flowers…_

_Two little arms reaching up; sleepyhead girl; she has her mother’s grace; her eyes; her smile. He lifts her up high; she giggles with joy; he loves her laughter. He brings her down for a kiss and holds her close; she puts her arms around his neck._

_“Sing, Dah,” she begs, “sing to me!”_

 

_........................_

High above, on the surface, Luke Skywalker took a breath in relief; he’d reached out with the simplest of feelings, but it was enough; he’d caught Ben before the fall. The Darkness snarled viciously, but retreated, letting the Light flow free.

Luke could see now; witnessing Ben’s vision - lightning and power - Luke didn’t understand what it meant, but he knew it was important.

Then he heard the sound of a little girl’s laughter…     

                

“Master Luke?” Rey had come back to him; her face was filled with anticipation. “Can you feel him?”

“Yes, Rey,” Luke replied. He would tell her what he thought she could know in small, carefully measured doses. “I feel him; but understand: knowing he’s here and finding him are two different things.”

“I understand.”

Luke doubted that she did, but he didn’t say so; there was only one thing to do.

“Then let’s get started,” he directed. “Find him, Rey.”

 

 ............................

 

 

High above the surface of Jakku, the Visitor had docked.

The debris field made perfect cover for the ship to slide under the Finalizer’s bridge and locate the Sanitation service bay. There was no power, but it was intact. Poe guided the ship in close enough for BB8 to exit a service port on the Visitor and connect a cable to the bay’s outer control panel and after that, it only took a few minutes to activate the panel and open the door.

Once inside, they closed the door and the hanger pressurized normally, so the first obstacle to their quest was out of the way. Now they were waiting while the ship determined a route that would lead safely to the bridge. As soon as they knew where to go, they’d be on their way, leaving Leia behind to watch the ship…

 

Leia stared in satisfaction at the waveform display as it scrolled through file after file of the data dump contents, listing them all for her. Dar Noaa was standing beside her, looking at the display in amazement.

“I knew I was right,” she told him.

“I am impressed.”

“Maybe what you need is here.”

“I doubt it,” he replied, “The Knights of Ren are a special breed; it’s unlikely that they would be involved, or even be aware of, what I’m looking for. It goes against their Code and they would instantly reject it.”

“Really?” Leia asked. “They’re not just… evil?”

“Good and evil,” Dar Noaa explained it simply, hoping to avoid saying something that might hurt her, “are not concepts that they… entertain.”

“What?”

“They call it ‘purity of purpose’,” he cautiously took his explanation a step further, “the single-minded dedication to whatever is required of them. There is nothing else.”

Leia’s face told him what she was thinking, but he knew the truth was much worse than she could imagine. In that data dump, she would find disturbing and terrible things about her only child.

“It is a difficult path to follow,” Dar Noaa confirmed her fears as gently as he could, “and a short one. It might be better if you waited…”

“No,” Leia cut him off, “I’ll be fine; it will keep me busy while you’re off playing pirate. Oh, that reminds me… wait here.”

She disappeared into the corridor, but then returned a few minutes later with her dagger in her hand.

“Here,” she held it out, “I want you to take this… just in case.”

 He put his hand on hers and pushed the dagger back to her.

 “You’re the one who needs this,” he told her. “You’ll be alone here; I won’t be alone out there,” he gestured past her, “and I have Dar Na to look after me.”

 

Leia looked behind her; the young Sith was standing there with Poe and Finn. They looked so young, so ready to go. She looked back to Dar Noaa; there was so much she wanted to say, but the situation called for the general and not the woman, so she said what was expected.

“Good luck.”

He pressed her hand before releasing it; then he turned and walked between the young males, taking the lead as they departed.

Leia waited until she heard the entry door seal behind them, then she returned to the waveform display.

It had to be there; she would find it.

“Kylo Ren,” she instructed the ship, “Show me everything.”

Sixty-three files appeared on the display, and among them, there it was.

His personal log.

Leia tapped the display and opened the file; there were hundreds of entries.

And she was going to read them all.

 

 

……………….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	22. Chapter 22

-22-

 

The Finalizer, the First Order's symbol of power, was almost powerless.

All major electrical systems were either offline or destroyed, so the only power available was from batteries and generators, and those were all dedicated to the hopeless task of providing enough propulsion to save the vessel from its rapidly decaying orbit around Jakku.

The good news was that meant nobody was watching when the raiders from the Visitor entered the ship.

The bad news was that their destination was four decks straight up.

The maintenance shaft ladders were direct but cramped; Dar Na took over the lead, followed by Finn, then Poe and finally Dar Noaa. The primary Bridge deck maintenance access door was clearly marked for them by the First Order, but it was small and had to be unlatched, then pulled and then pushed up to open it, requiring Dar Na to lean far back while Finn held him to the ladder by his ankles to perform the task. The good news there was that the open door was not visible to anyone who might be at either end of the corridor standing watch.

Dar Na leaned forward, looked both directions and declared the corridor clean.

“Go slow,” Finn advised as he watched Dar Na push himself up and then through the door, “guards have to be here someplace; and they are *hardcore* - if they see us, we’re dead.”

Dar Na stood up, looked back at him, then silently gestured for him to climb out. Finn hurried to join him and then the two stood back to back, keeping watch while Poe and Dar Noaa emerged from the shaft.

“Do you need to rest?” Finn asked.

“I do not,” Dar Noaa frowned at the idea that Finn questioned his condition, but the truth was the climb had been more challenging than he wanted to admit. “Which way now?”

“That way;” Finn pointed. “We have to open *that* door.”

“Leave it to me,” Dar Noaa walked ahead of Finn, fumbling in his pockets as he went. “Ah, here it is,” he produced a small metal rod, “a little gift from A and A.” Holding the rod in his hand, he touched the control panel with one end, then pressed the other end with his thumb. There was a tiny spark where the rod contacted the control panel, and the door slid open, granting them entry.

“Outstanding,” Finn observed. “Where’d you get that?”

“I stole it from A and A,” Dar Noaa replied. “*They* stole it from...”

His words were interrupted when a blast hit the door frame beside him, barely missing his head. Finn grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back, shielding him.

Two Stormtroopers were coming down the corridor toward them, their blasters were set to automatic, and they were spraying the open space wildly. Blaster hits sparked on the walls, the floor, even the ceiling above; Finn felt one zip by his arm so close it singed his sleeve, but he didn’t react. A lifetime spent training for this moment paid off; he fired exactly two shots, taking both targets down quickly and cleanly before Poe could rush out to join him, and the corridor was silent again.

As soon as Poe was beside him, Finn turned to check on Dar Noaa.

“Are you hit?” he asked.

“Of course not,” Dar Noaa replied; but then he added, “You did well here.”

“We have to move,” Finn ordered, assuming command without thinking about it. “If there are more, they’ll be coming.”

Finn took the lead and they cautiously made their way through the corridor, then through another; now all that stood between them and the main Bridge was one more closed door. Dar Noaa worked his magic on the control panel and the door slid open.

They were inside with the door closed behind them before the desperate crew working there even noticed.

 

………

 

 Aboard the Visitor, Leia Organa was struggling to hold herself together as she read the personal log of the Kylo of Ren. His early entries were simple:

“ _Mission to; objective acquired; mission complete.”_

Those were no problem for Leia; they were posted with no details at all. For the first year, that was all he had to say; it was in the second year that something changed and his entries began to include brief comments:

“ _Mission to; objective located; terminated; mission accomplished. Inexperienced; it was quick.”_

Leia took little notice beyond the added comments, but the entries that followed began to tell the story…

“ _Mission to; objective located, terminated; mission accomplished. Force-sensitive, not Jedi. Outmatched.”_

“ _Mission to; objectives located; terminated; mission accomplished. Both Force-sensitives only. Even together, outmatched.”_

“ _Mission to; objective located; terminated; mission accomplished. Force-sensitive only. Little resistance.”_

“ _Mission to; objective located; terminated; mission accomplished. Force worshipers only. They defended themselves bravely.”_

“ _Mission to; objectives located; terminated; mission accomplished. Not Force-sensitives. No resistance at all.”_

Leia felt sick; her son was hunting down Force-sensitives and slaughtering them; probably following Snoke’s orders.

But then:

“ _Mission to; objectives located; objectives released; mission aborted. Code violation.”_

Followed by:

“ _Received reply from Supreme Leader regarding code violation: Knights of Ren are directed to terminate all assigned Force-sensitive objectives even if they fail to meet test criteria. We will consider this directive.”_

Then:

“ _After due consideration, we have determined that the directive is outside acceptable assignment parameters and violates Code. I am released from obligation. We see no reason to burden Supreme Leader with further discussion regarding the matter.”_

Leia sighed sadly; it didn’t mean the slaughter had been stopped; only that it had not been expanded to include anyone that Snoke simply wanted out of the way. But she did notice that Ben had used the word “obligation”, which might mean that he took no pleasure in what he was doing for Snoke.

The entries continued:

_"Mission to; objective located, not obtained; mission aborted. We were misinformed; the Dikiki are primitive, but what they lack in technology, they make up for in aggression. Ambushed during approach; my leg broken again, stone axe this time; twelve weeks bone regeneration required."_

There was a time gap in the entries; and when they resumed, something else changed - Ben’s entries became fewer, and most of them were posted after a mission that he did not take part in.

_"Mission to; objective located; objective obtained; Knights returned intact."_

_"Mission to; objective located; objective obtained; Knights returned; 2 injured."_

Leia started to skim the entries; giving each a quick glance and then moving on to the next, until one came up that captured her attention instantly.

_"Mission to Coruscant; delivery accomplished. Knights returned intact."_

More followed; Leia kept count: the Knights of Ren entered Republic space *twenty-two* times and delivered something unknown to someone unknown on Coruscant. She was mystified and concerned; what could they be delivering there – and more importantly, to who? Leia was well aware that some in the Republic privately held First Order sympathies, especially among the Centrists, but she never imagined that any of them would be so bold as to actually have dealings with them inside Coruscant space. Coruscant was decadent and decaying, but it was also the revered symbol of power in the galaxy; beings had been fighting to possess and control it for millennia. If the First Order’s reach already extended that deep into the Republic, it meant that things there were much worse than even she suspected. She read on:

_"Mission to Coruscant; delivery accomplished. Knights returned intact. My repeated requests to accompany them on these missions have all been rejected by Supreme Leader."_

So it was Snoke that was holding Ben back; Leia wondered why. Perhaps he was afraid to let Ben travel too close to home and he was  keeping him far away, out of his mother’s reach. Snoke wanted to keep them apart, to keep her out of the way. And that got her to thinking; what if all those assassination attempts; especially the ones that continued even *after* she was driven out of the Senate, weren’t political at all…

Snoke.

He could have been behind them, and there could only be one reason why: he was *afraid* of her!

Snoke was afraid that she might be able to break his hold on Ben, that she could take him *back*. All along, it was probably Snoke who was influencing elements within the Republic to eliminate her, so her death would be blamed on civil unrest. That would explain why all the investigations never led anywhere; the trail always ended with a suicide or accidental death of the suspects; case closed.

And why? Arranging an “assassination” instead of a murder would keep Ben from knowing the truth while justifying his rejection of the Republic; leaving him utterly alone, bound to Snoke with no hope of escape.

Yes, Snoke feared her.

And that meant Leia was right - there was still light in her son.

 

…………...

 

On the Finalizer’s bridge, the Catastrophe crew was staring at their captors in disbelief.

“I don’t believe you understand the situation here,” one of them stated.

“Who are you?” Dar Noaa asked.

“I am the senior officer.”

“What is your name?”

“Colonel ES3548.”

“Engineering specialist,” Finn translated.

“Well, engineering specialist 3548,” Dar Noaa moved closer as he spoke, easily reaching into the officer’s mind, “I apologize for interrupting your disaster; especially now, when you’ve only just realized that you cannot possibly achieve breakaway and you’re all going to die.”

A low moan of combined horror came from the rest of the crew, who clearly had not been informed yet, and ES3548’s expression of confidence vanished.

“Under the circumstances,” Dar Noaa seized the opportunity, “you might want to consider a proposal I have for you.”

“What kind of proposal?”

“A simple transaction,” Da Noaa replied, “You give us access to this vessel’s data systems and we’ll help you save it.”

Finn and Poe exchanged a look, but kept silent.

“The systems aren’t fully operational,” ES3548’s first thought was to avoid taking responsibility, “and my access is restricted from the highest levels.”

“All you have to do is enter a password,” Dar Noaa countered, “we’ll deal with what comes after.”

“How can you help us save this ship?”

“Enter a password and I’ll tell you.”

“You could be lying.”

“It is entirely possible that I am lying; but if you do not enter a password, it is a certainty that this vessel will go down in flames… literally… with all of you still aboard.”

The expression on ES3548’s face gave Dar Noaa the answer he anticipated; this officer was not a hard-liner; he was just someone caught in a bad situation who wanted to survive. His hesitation was entirely due to conditioning; his fear of the First Order was greater than his fear of death.

But that was not a problem; all the engineer needed was a little push in the right direction...

 

………………

 

Aboard the Visitor, Leia had come to the conclusion that, by this point in time, her son was essentially a prisoner of Snoke and the First Order. The delay between entries was growing longer and the tone of the few he was able to post showed signs of growing resentment.

_"Mission to; objective located; objective acquired. Knights returned intact. Supreme Leader has ordered their immediate departure; my request to rejoin them denied. My request to know where they will be stationed denied. I am assigned to Starkiller Base until further notice."_

The next entry wasn’t posted until months and months later, and Leia’s hand went to her mouth as she read it:

_"Sullust. Mission accepted; locate and retrieve; Objective: Jakku female; ID:Rey. Believed to be in company of Luke Skywalker. Terminate Skywalker."_

_"Mission to; objective not located; proceeding to;"_

_"Mission to; objective not located; proceeding to;"_

_"Mission to; objective not located, proceeding to;"_

_"Mission to Ahch’tu; objective located; absent on arrival; return expected."_

Leia hesitated; the next entry would be painful to read. But she’d come this far, and she needed to know, so she opened the file - but it was not what she was expecting:

_"Dagobah. Knights dead; ambushed on Ahch’tu; Hux and First Order betrayed us.The girl saved my life."_

Leia knew who “the girl” was; it had to be Rey. She shifted in her seat and began to read again.

 

……………… _..._

 

On the Finalizer Bridge, Dar Noaa was busy at a workstation. ES3548’s password limitations were as he’d described them; the highest levels of the database were inaccessible, but that didn’t mean there was nothing to find. Dar Noaa wasn’t interested in the First Order's military strategy; their war of conquest wasn’t going very well at the moment, and it wouldn’t matter who was ruling the galaxy if it disappeared forever, anyway.

What he needed was clues; where; what and who.

First, he accessed the ship’s navigation database; it rewarded him with charts of the Unknown Regions, including the locations of the First Order’s “official” homeworld and the fabled “secret” research bases of the Empire, and also information regarding conditions there, all the way out to the Edge. There was no time to explore it, though, so he downloaded everything to the Visitor and pressed on.

Next, he accessed ship’s financial and media databases; those rewarded him with volumes of business reports, including employment numbers, investment figures and most rewarding of all, a huge list of officially sanctioned companies and the contracts the First Order had with them. A confusing mess at first glance, but Dar Noaa felt strongly that this was the information that he would find most useful, so he downloaded it, then he searched on for more files to take.

He was scanning the possibilities when he remembered the ship’s personnel database. Information on everyone above the rank of Colonel was restricted, so there was no way to download anything for Leia about her son; but the records of stormtroopers were readily available, and Finn's record was there. Dar Noaa didn’t say anything to Finn, though; instead, he downloaded the file so Finn could read it once they were back on the Visitor and well away from here.

He’d just closed the file and moved on when Finn came over.

“How’s it going?” Finn asked nervously. “This lot says there’s at least three more guards out there, and it won’t be long before they circuit back here and find us.”

“I’m almost finished.”

Finn looked at the captive crew briefly, then leaned over, close to Dar Noaa.

“Are you really,” he kept his voice low, “going to help them save this ship?”

“Of course.”

“Wouldn’t it be better for the galaxy, “ Finn grumbled, “if we just let it fall?”

“Not for the beings on Jakku.” Dar Noaa didn’t look up. “And I promised to help them achieve breakaway; I didn’t say in what direction. Jakku has two moons, does it not?”

“Yes. It. Does.”

 

………..

 

It was the last entry:

_"Mission to: Finalizer."_

Leia sighed deeply and wiped her eyes; Ben wrote about his time on Dagobah in surprising detail: Rey saving his life, their fear, their confrontations, then their cooperation, and then how something changed for them both. The entries became longer and more personal; he wrote about how she looked in his clothes, how she walked, how strong and smart she was and how beautiful she was when she was asleep.

But then:

_"Dabogah. She will never be safe as long as she is with me. I must give her back."_

_"Dagobah. Message sent; Luke Skywalker."_

_"Dagobah. Skywalker arrived; I gave her back. I will make things right for her."_

And finally:

_"Mission to: Finalizer."_

Whatever he planned to do once he got there went unsaid, but Leia already knew about that; Dar Noaa’s analysis was probably accurate; her son returned to the Finalizer and did all that damage by *himself*. It was a reckless, foolish, and selflessly brave thing to do.

_He’s so like his father._

The thought ripped open the wound in her soul, but she didn’t let it take her over. Instead, she returned to the file listing; there were other files besides Kylo Ren’s personal log that might tell her more, including the ship’s holographic records, but she just couldn't make herself open another file. She'd read enough; she could bear no more for now. Ben had done terrible things; terrible things had been done to him; Leia understood that the child she remembered and loved was gone forever.

She grieved for him.

But this Ren who wrote about Rey, this dark and tortured soul who was all that remained of her son, still had Leia’s heart. Despite everything, Leia found that her desire to have him back had not diminished at all.

In fact, she wanted him back now more than ever.

 

………………..

 

On the Finalizer bridge, Finn was growing more anxious by the minute; Dar Noaa was taking much too long.

“How much longer?” he asked again.

“A few minutes more.”

“We might not have a few minutes more.”

Dar Noaa looked up from the display and studied Finn for a second.

“You feel something?” His tone was completely serious.

Finn was startled by the question. He didn’t know; his training told him that those unaccounted-for guards should have returned by now and discovered them here; but there was something else… in his mind, he could see them; they were climbing, coming closer...

“Don’t *think*,” Dar Noaa raised one hand from the console, “Tell me.”

“They’re climbing;” Finn replied, but not because Dar Noaa had just pushed him; he’d felt that. It was because, somehow, he knew that he was right. “A deck below, maybe less.”

“Coming our way?’” Da Noaa asked.“Leia’s alone...”

“Coming our way.”

Dar Noaa gestured to Poe to bring ES3548 to him, but the engineer didn’t need any coaxing; he hurried forward, leaving Poe behind.

“Can you call them off?” Dar Noaa asked.

“No,” ES3548 answered grimly, “they’re here to keep *us* here; and when they see you...”

“Then we’re leaving,” Dar Noaa said, “Right now.”

“What about our deal?”

“Unchanged.”Dar Noaa was already out of the seat and moving, so the engineer moved, too, following closely behind him. The Sith stopped, looked at him and then at the rest of his crew.“All of you; get back to your stations!” he commanded, and the crew obeyed; then he addressed the engineer. “If we make it back to our vessel, we’ll drop behind you, dump a rather powerful device into the port main engine bell and detonate it.”

“That will destroy it!”

“Totally, I expect,” Dar Noaa replied, “but the blast will give you the impulse you need to break orbit, which is what I promised you. After that, you are on your own.”

The statement was not lost on ES3548; the engineer’s mind instantly turned to working the problem and he stopped following. Dar Na, Poe and Finn flowed around him, following Dar Noaa to the door, but before the Sith could touch the control panel to open it, Finn spoke up.

“You might want to step back,” he said, “They’re *here*.”

Dar Noaa didn’t reply; he simply nodded slightly and moved out of the way. Finn stepped into his place, made a fist of his free hand and rapped the panel hard. The door slid open; the three young warriors surged through it; Dar Noaa remained inside the open door, watching.

Three shots, three down. All Finn’s.

And Finn was already moving through the far doorway, leading the way, so Dar Noaa had to hurry to catch up.

 

…………...

 

Back on the Finalizer bridge, the Catastrophe crew was in crisis.

The guards were all dead; there was no one keeping them here. Some of the crew wanted to make a run for it, but they had no idea where to; as far as they knew, everything capable of leaving the ship had been taken in the evacuation. They stood at their stations in silence as the others worked feverishly to calculate how fast and how far the Sith’s promised detonation could take them.

When he saw the numbers, ES3548 snorted with rage.

The Sith’s “help” would certainly free them from Jakku’s gravity, but he'd chosen the port main engine bell for a reason; the post-impulse trajectory would send them directly toward one of the planet's two moons. There was no chance that the ship could avoid collision, but they might be able to level out just enough to ground it there rather than crash outright.

_Damn him!_

ES3548 had kept his part of the bargain. He believed that the Sith would keep his part as well; but it didn’t seem fair to ES3548 that the Sith was getting away with the much better part of of it. ES3548 could fix that - all he had to do was use the comlink on the console in front of him; he’d report the intrusion to his commanding officer on the planet below.

With a little luck, the TIE fighters would arrive just in time to witness the Sith keeping his part of the bargain.

After that, the Sith was on his own.

 

……….

 


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was was knocked out fast because this week was misery at work. As always, let me know about typos, etc and I'll fix them.  
> 

-23-

 

Jakku was never silent.

It offered no clue to the secrets that lay beneath its dry and desolate surface of stone, rock and drifting dust and sand, except in whispers carried by the winds. There was the whisper of sand scouring stone; the whisper of air whistling between cracks and crevices in rock; the whisper of a strange and mysterious low frequency hum that seemed to be everywhere and nowhere; and finally, there was the mysterious swish of sand falling from high above.

Ren had been sitting for some time in the dark; listening; if he wanted silence, he would not find it here. But Jakku’s whispers blended into a soothing song that helped him regain some control of himself; and if not for the random snorts coming Hux, he might have been able to sleep for awhile. But Ren’s prisoner was rapidly recovering and would soon regain consciousness, so there would be no time to rest.

_Mirror bright, shines the moon…_

He wondered why that song had come to him; why now and why with such overpowering force?

_My mother. Singing._

It seemed impossible, but he’d heard her so clearly, as if she was…

_Here._

He felt a rush of childlike excitement at the possibility, followed almost instantly by a rush of guilt; even if somehow she’d been magically transported to this forsaken place, she would not be here for him. She’d never be anywhere for him again, ever. And yet…

“ _The Force is with you.”_

Somebody sent that; somebody sent that just when he needed to hear it.

Was it her? Or was the entire experience just another psychotic episode?

Ren didn’t know, and he should know. The possibility that he’d fallen so far from his mother that he couldn’t even sense her anymore was too painful to consider, so Ren pushed the thought aside. The logical approach was to reach out and search; if his mother was indeed here, he should be able to find her.

He leaned back against the seat and tried to relax; if he could make himself calm enough, he could search for her, but a blast of static coming from the transport’s comlink interrupted his attempt before he could even start.

Somebody was using the First Order military frequency.

“This is Colonel ES3548,” a voice cut through the static, “The Finalizer has been boarded. I repeat, we have been boarded. Defense guard dead; secure data stolen.”

The silence that followed didn’t surprise Ren; the Finalizer evacuation had been quick and sloppy, so who was actually in charge on Jakku was probably still being determined. Right now, every crew that received the message was trying to contact every other crew to see who had the most superior officer so they could relinquish authority to them. And then any fighter available and able would be dispatched to engage the unwanted visitors and destroy them before they could get away with their stolen data.

 _Stupid,_ Ren thought. _Pirates_ _board the Finalizer and what do they take? Data! They could’ve hit the ship’s treasury; or its storage berths; lots of_ _things_ _there for the taking that could easily be converted in_ _to_ _credits, but they came after data. That’s something my…_

_Oh._

Ren closed his eyes, shutting everything out; focusing his mind on only one thought, he searched for his mother.

And he found her - she was *there*!

 

…………….

 

High above the surface of Jakku, space was cold and silent. Here, stories were told in light; the dark, crippled behemoth moved like a shadow within a twinkling cloud of its own wreckage as if it knew its time was running out.

 

Aboard the Finalizer, the raiding party was making their escape.

Returning the way the they’d come was neither graceful nor easy, but it was faster than the climb up had been. The young raiders took the lead, and now were on the service deck, in the corridor, waiting for Dar Noaa to finish the long climb.

“What ‘s taking him so long?” Finn complained.

“I *heard* that.”

The reply came from just inside the service tunnel entry, and it was followed by Dar Noaa’s body emerging from it. Dar Na went to assist him, but Dar Noaa waved the young Sith off and straightened up on his own.

“Are you all right?” Finn asked.

“Yes,” This time Dar Noaa took no offense at the question; coming down had been much more difficult than going up was, and he to concentrate to do it. “I am...”

Movement at the far end of the corridor startled him; two more Stormtroopers appeared in the open door there with their weapons ready. The three young males in front of him were looking at him and not over their shoulders, so Dar Noaa acted instantly to protect them.

The two Stormtroopers lifted off the floor and sailed backwards the way they had come.

The sound alerted Dar Na, Poe and Finn, who spun around just in time to see the hard landing in the corridor beyond. Before Poe and Finn could react, Dar Na sped after them and quickly made sure they would not be getting up again.

“Let’s go,” Dar Noaa started forward, parting Finn and Poe as he walked. The two of them followed closely behind.

“What was *that*?” Finn’s question was demand, not inquiry, “What did you just do?”

“Not now,” Dar Noaa didn’t slow down to answer, and now they were passing Dar Na and the bodies, “We can talk about this later.”

“Talk about this *later*?” Finn knew what he’d just witnessed; he’d heard stories on the Finalizer about this kind of thing. “You could do this? This whole time, you could do *this* – and you didn’t tell us!”

“You did not ask.”

“I didn’t ask?” Finn was incensed. “Why should I have to ask?”

“You took command,” Dar Noaa said flatly; his thoughts were someplace else; “and you were doing fine; so I allowed you to.”

Finn had no immediate response for that, mainly because it was true; he’d taken command without asking for it. He felt a curious mix of annoyance, embarrassment and pride; he was pretty sure that the Sith had just praised his performance and surprised by how much he liked hearing it. Then he realized that Dar Noaa’s attention was now solely on getting to the ship and General Organa, so he wasn’t listening anyway.

When Dar Noaa reached the service hanger bay, the door was closed and locked, just as he had left it; and once he’d opened the door and saw the ship intact, he quickened his pace. As soon as he was inside, he called for Leia.

She replied from her quarters.

Dar Noaa breathed out in relief, but he didn’t go to her; he went to the cockpit because they had to convert a probe into a bomb, get out of the hanger, place the bomb in the port main engine bell and then get out the way before detonating it.

And if he’d read ES3548 correctly, they had very little time do do it.

 

…………….

 

Below the surface of Jakku, Ren was listening to the comlink chatter intently. The search for a superior officer eventually came to rest on Colonel Eskuta; a name Ren recognized because Colonel Eskuta’s signature appeared on approved requisition forms. He was the Finalizer’s quartermaster; a being experienced in every aspect of supplying a military force with everything except strategy. Eskuta’s first thought was to order a count of surviving TIE fighters, which made sense, especially since Ren destroyed most of them in their hangers.

The count came back, a voice on the comlink announced that twenty fully flight-worthy TIE fighters were available.

“Available for what?”

Ren turned and saw Hux looking at him; apparently the sound of someone else taking his command was enough to rouse the General from his Force-induced nap. Ren waited patiently through the few seconds it took for Hux to remember where he was and who he was with before answering.

“Pirates, Armitage,” Ren said. “Pirates…”

“What?”

“Your flagship has pirates,” Ren was savoring every word, “and Colonel Eskuta is in command.”

“Eskuta? That idiot?!”

“Right now, he’s deciding how many of your twenty remaining TIE fighters he’s willing to commit to engage them,” Ren kept his tone calm; he would decide what to do as soon as a number came over the comlink. “It’s not your concern now; your orders are to report to Leader Snoke with whatever that is in the corridor,” he rose from the seat and stepped toward Hux, looming over him like death itself. “And I’m pressed for time, so you’re going to send the code and get us those co-ordinates right now.”

Hux saw the hand rising and braced himself for what was to come.

 

 …………………..

 

High above the surface of Jakku, the Visitor was hovering just inside the open service bay door.

“No signs of activity,” Poe reported the ship’s scan, “We’re good to go.”

“Keep us in tight,” Dar Noaa was standing beside him, busy programming the probe.”Stay over the hyperdirve generator all the way astern, then put us behind the port main engine bell.”

“Yes, Sir.”

“We must be aligned with the engine exhaust vent and and thirty meters away before I can launch.”

“Understood.”

“And when I launch, ninety degrees, negative - straight down, as fast as the vessel can take us.”

“Understood.”

Poe didn’t need the details; if they weren’t well out the way when the probe detonated, they’d be caught in the blast and incinerated. He set the ship to work calculating the position.

“We’re gonna eat some of this, aren’t we?” Finn asked from behind them.

“I believe so,” Dar Noaa replied. “Please go inform the General.”

Barely a minute later, Leia appeared in the cockpit with Finn following. She nudged up beside Dar Noaa and put her hand on his back.

“You should be in your quarters,” he told her.

“And miss this?” Her hand moved slightly, rubbing his back gently. “It’s my ship, remember?”

“All right,” There was no time to argue, and Dar Noaa knew he would lose anyway. “Things will happen quickly, so be sure to hold onto something.”

“I am.”

He gave her a tiny smile, then turned to the display. The ship had cleared the hyperdrive generator and was dropping down behind the Finalizer, coming to a point directly between the two gigantic main engine bells. Then Poe guided it to the port main engine bell until it was centered and facing the engine exhaust vent and held position there.

Dar Noaa made a few last-second adjustments, glanced at Leia, then addressed Poe.

“Are you ready?”

“Yes, sir.”

“All right, then; on my mark...”

Dar Noaa touched the waveform display; the ship replied with a single ding. They heard the sound of the probe launching, then they saw it on the display.

“Now!”

Poe tapped the waveform and the Finalizer in the display image shot up and out of view. Not even the ship’s artificial gravity could keep the crew in place; only firm grips on what they were holding kept them from being left behind and hitting the ceiling.

It only took seconds for the probe to reach it’s target, where it counted down ten more seconds during which it dumped half of its fuel into the bowl of the engine bell, then detonated it. For a few milliseconds, the engine bell deflected the blast, directing its force back, giving the port side a brief but powerful kick. A shock wave raced outward, slamming into the debris field surrounding the ship, turning its contents into deadly projectiles. It also bashed against the Finalizer’s hull, forcing the bridge up and then back, almost folding it onto itself; the lower decks absorbed the impact and the bridge compartments remained intact, just no longer level. Then the engine bell cracked, and then shattered; hundreds of huge metal chunks of it flew out and away.

The Finalizer lurched forward, the blast had provided the needed push, but its trajectory was changed drastically - and it began to spin slowly, wobbling like a wayward asteroid.

Not far below, the crew of Visitor was holding on tight. Poe turned the ship into the shock wave; the ship’s hull flexed under the pressure, but it’s composite coatings offered no resistance and the wave slid over it smoothly, then continued on its way, leaving no damage behind beyond the terror of the ship’s occupants. The debris the shock wave carried with it was another story; sharp points scraped the coatings and blunt ends made dents, but the coatings did their job and the hull beneath remained unscathed.

The first danger behind them, Poe set to navigating a way through any lingering chaos. For the time being, the Visitor was trapped inside the expanding shock bubble until it cleared a path out for them.

“Is the reactor core breached?” Dar Noaa asked.

“No,” Dar Na reported from his seat; the display was clean. “We are safe for now.”

“Look for a spot close to the destroyer where we can drift along with it,” Dar Noaa instructed Poe. “Try to blend in… and extend the proximity scan perimeter.”

“Are we expecting company?” Leia asked.

“I hope not.”

 

…………………….………………

 

Below the surface of Jakku, Ren was prepping the Command Transport for departure.

Hux had offfered little resistance to the mind extraction, so he was still conscious and watching as Ren entered the co-ordinates that had been sent in reply to Hux’s message. When the course display updated on the console in front of them, Hux was genuinely surprised.

“Is that the Coruscant system?” His voice revealed his confusion.

“Yes,” Ren replied, confirming that Hux was not hallucinating it. “Coruscant.”

“Why would Supreme Leader be on Coruscant?” Hux’s disbelief was obvious. “How could he be there?”

“I don’t know,” Ren shook his head, “but we’ll learn soon enough.”

A new blast of static from the comlink meant that a decision had been made by the First Order’s acting commandant:

“By order of Colonel Eskuta ,” the voice reported, “Secure your Bridge,Colonel ES3548; ten TIE fighters are being dispatched to investigate and engage your intruders. They won’t escape.”

“Time to go,” Ren said.

A tap of the launch sequence initiator set the automated docking system into action; the conveyor carried the transport up, returning it to its original landing pad, then quickly retracted.

High above the dark complex of buildings below, the transport sat alone on its perch, totally engulfed by the blackness surrounding it. It was so silent that, for a few seconds, Ren felt an intense desire to stay right here forever; but he shook it off and brought the transport systems online. The underground base’s automation that controlled the transport’s arrival earlier sensed the power surge; it responded by activating the Access system.

High overhead, enormous metal plates that kept the sands of Jakku – and everything else – out began to slide apart, revealing the sky above. As Ren watched and waited anxiously for the Access opening to reach minimum exit diameter, his mind was focused on only two thoughts; getting to the Finalizer quickly, and after that, going for Snoke.

He had absolutely no idea that someone who had been searching desperately for him was up there, watching the widening gap in the surface of the Goazon in stunned silence.

 

………...

 

“Get back!”

Rey didn’t hear him, so Luke grabbed her arm and dragged her back.

It was impossible to know how far they needed to go before they would be safe because they were being carried away from the opening by whatever was moving below the surface of the Goazon to open it. And it was moving remarkably fast; growing wider by meters every second with no sign of slowing down or stopping.

The deafening sound and the motion beneath her feet broke the spell that this place had been holding over Rey the entire time they’d taken to get here, and she turned to Luke in confusion and fear.

“What’s happening?” she asked loudly.

“Here’s your sinking sand, Rey,” Luke shouted back, “Nothing natural about it; it’s a gateway!”

“A gateway to what?”

“The Empire’s secret base; the real base; the one nobody thought to look for.”

“It’s underneath the Goazon?”

“No - it *is* the Goazon!”

Rey’s face told the story; she didn’t comprehend what Luke was telling her. He’s suspected from the start of their trek, grown more sure with every step, and this confirmed it.

Palpatine never thought small, but he always thought hidden.

The base constructed on Carbon Ridge was just an illusion; the reality was that the real Empire base had been built below, painstakingly expanded meter by meter until it stretched from one edge of the Goazon to the other! Any outsider who came close was eliminated by “vanishing” in a haunted cave or terrifying sand sink that scared those who might follow away.

And the Empire’s thousands who were here constructing it? Anyone who was not rescued and transported to new bases in the Unknown Regions when Jakku fell would have been eliminated in any number of unpleasant ways. And the few who escaped death below quickly became part of Jakku’s fireside folklore and nothing more.

A single screech of metal against metal; the movement stopped with a jerk, almost knocking them both off their feet. They staggered a few steps to regain their footing, and as they stood straight again, they saw something black emerge slowly from the opening.

 

……………….

 

_Her presence rushed through him; taking his breath away, just as it had on Degobah when she kissed him goodbye. So close, he could almost reach out take her in his arms again…_

_Rey!_

 He sensed her - and with her, Luke Skywalker. Luke was here with her!

_It was Luke that reached out to me; it was Luke’s hand that pulled mine back!_

But he couldn’t stay; he couldn’t even linger, no matter how he felt. He sent a message:

“ _Mother needs help.”_

Luke would hear it; he’d understand.

But Rey! The one thing he wanted to say to her was the last thing she'd want to hear; he wondered if she’d even hear him if he tried:

“ _I’m going to make things right for you.”_

That was a mistake, because he couldn’t stop himself once he started.

“ _I love you.”_

The Transport had cleared the Access and he had to go if he was going to intercept the TIE fighters already closing on the Finalizer and his mother; he activated the main drive with an angry slap.

And as he was shooting up toward space, away from her, he heard her reply:

“ _Come back to me.”_

This was unexpected; something sparkled in his mind; it was a feeling long-forgotten and totally undeserved.

Hope.

 

…………..

 

High above Jakku, Poe was fighting to keep The Visitor on any kind of safe course.

The Finalizer was moving forward and gyrating slowly around a new center of gravity someplace inside its mass, meaning that Poe had to adjust the ship’s position as quickly as he could just to stay in one place beside it. And the destroyer was still unstable and changing; the spin was creating torsion in the fore-section; the display image showed how it was starting to twist in response. There was no telling how long before metal fatigue would start to break it apart, and when that happened, the Visitor would be literally caught between.

“We can’t stay here much longer,” Poe said, even though he could see that Dar Noaa was studying the display in search of an option. “Give me something...”

“Take us behind the Bridge,” the Sith saw only one way to go, but he didn’t like it, “and drop behind the main engines; that should shield us for the moment.”

“Okay, but it’s no hiding place.”

“I am aware of that!” Dar Noaa’s reply was sharp, revealing how much stress he was under. “I never should have let Jakku influence me.”

“We’re still here,” Leia understood how he was feeling and stepped in to help. A Sith should not have cared about the beings on Jakku and would have simply let the Finalizer stay as it was. Part of Dar Noaa surely wanted to do just that, and it was only his connection to the Light – to her – that kept him from doing so. Now he was facing the consequences of his choice and the Sith in him was blaming him for it. “And I know you can get us out.” Then she moved close to him, and whispered, “I know it.”

He felt it; a gentle stream of power flowing from her into him, exactly what he needed.

“Thank you.”

“Good,” Leia relaxed, he sounded much better now. “Now, do it.”

 

A few seconds later, he mumbled something to himself and spread his hands.

“Ah!” He said it loudly, “Here! Look, Poe – we slip under the Finalizer, go forward to midship and then drop down at, I think, about eighty degrees negative, but do not accelerate! That should keep us clear of the drift.”

“Here we go.”

The Visitor slipped down between the main engines, passed under the bulge of the Reactor core containment sphere and headed forward. Aside from a few small maneuvers to avoid jutting wreckage, it was an easy trip. It was all going so well when the proximity alert alarm sounded…

“How many?” Dar Noaa asked.

“Ten.” Da Na reported, “First Order TIE fighters.”

“This is not good!” Poe said it through gritted teeth. He’d flown a TIE fighter; he knew what a fine machine it was. He also knew that the fine machine he was piloting right now was not designed for combat, and certainly not designed for combat against a TIE. “We have to run for it!”

“Yes.” Dar Noaa’s agreement was solemn. “Run!”

Poe accelerated forward, but he could see a TIE was rising to cut him off. Then he remembered something; instead of trying to get past the TIE; he made a sharp bank and entered the gaping hole that was once the TIE hanger. A huge hole now connected it to the other TIE hanger, so Poe sped straight through and out the other gaping hole on the other side.

But once through, he spotted another TIE on approach, so he pulled up hard, taking the Visitor upside down and over the top towards the side he’d just left. The first TIE had followed him through the hole and couldn’t avoid colliding with the second, so both went careening away.

But when Poe arrived at the first side, he found *another*TIE coming, so he banked sharply again, back into the hanger, towards the hole – but this time he saw the way out was being blocked by another arriving TIE!

He didn’t know if it was instinct or pure luck, but he recalled that he’d seen a flash of light as he went through that hole; and so this time through, he banked hard in that direction...

… and found that he was now inside the ship’s Central Void.

And he knew that because he knew *this* place; it was the simulation that the Visitor kept offering him over and over again. He *knew* this!

“Don’t worry!” He shouted to his terrified crew-mates,”I know this!”

“Who’s worried!” Finn shouted back.

It didn’t look the same, it was a maze of twisted wreckage, but if Poe could navigate through it, there was a landing and an open hanger port at the end.

But it wouldn’t be easy.

“Slow down!” Dar Noaa was shouting,”Don’t breach the hull!”

That was followed immediately by the sound of scraping as Poe shot through a narrow opening, but the display didn’t report any fatal damage. Dar Noaa put his hands to his head and gasped, but said nothing more.

They were in Poe’s hands now.

They’d passed the last of the functioning emergency battery lights, and Poe had to slow down to navigate by the display and the ship’s floodlights, but there was less damage this far forward and Poe spotted a patch of stars suspended in the darkness ahead and shot for it.

In another second, they were in space, ahead of the Finalizer, pulling away from it, but it was far from over - the remaining TIES were swarming all over the destroyer behind them, scanning for them.

“No choice!” Dar Noaa commanded tensely. This was a race they might not be able to win, but it was all they could do, “We have to run.”

Poe sped forward, heading down, toward the planet below, but then he fired the retros, braking hard, slowing the ship and tossing the crew about painfully. The proximity alarm sounded, but Poe already knew what he was seeing blocking their way.

A Command Transport. Huge and armed and inescapable. He said it out loud.

“We’re finished.”

“Can we outrun it?” Leia’s question was desperate.

Dar Noaa’s reply was resigned.

“No.”

Leia pressed against Dar Noaa; he put his arms around her and held her close.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“I’m not.” she replied.

Everyone braced themselves for the shot that would kill them.

They waited.

Nothing happened.

They had to look...

The Transport had slowed, it approached, then glided directly over them and slowed again.

It was hovering over them, matching their speed exactly.

“What’s this?” Dar Noaa asked.

He looked at Leia and saw that her eyes were wide, and then he felt it, too.

“Is that *him*?”

“Yes!” Her face was glowing.

“What’s going on?” Poe asked nervously.

“We’re in it’s shadow!” Dar Noaa understood. “The batwing foils! In this position, they create an electromagnetic screen between them. The TIE sensors can’t *see* us!”

“So what do we do?”

“Get as close to the undercarriage as possible and stay there – whatever this Transport does, you copy it.”

“Okay,” Poe swallowed and addressed the ship, “Viz, I’m going to ten centimeters, let me know if I get too close.”

“Confirmed.”

Poe moved up carefully, and stopped; ten centimeters from impact.

A few second laters, the Transport began to move forward slowly; Poe kept up, watching carefully, learning. The rate of acceleration increased, and Poe kept up. It increased faster, but now Poe knew the plan and accelerated simultaneously. The Transport slipped alongside the Finalizer; it passed effortlessly through the storm of TIE fighters and then began its descent towards the planet below, taking its secret cargo with it.

 

And aboard the Visitor, the crew struggled to understand why they’d just been rescued from certain death by the enemy. Questions, theories and wild speculation filled the cockpit.

 Only Leia was silent.

 And only Dar Noaa knew why.

 

………………

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Made deadline. Things are still busy around here, so next chapter could be late, but there will definitely be a next chapter. :-)

-24-

 

On the Goazon, sunset was coming.

With no clouds in the sky, it simply began to lose its color, turning a dusty gray. Only on the horizon were there hints of red and orange, as dust released from the warm air currents of day drifted down. The rapidly dropping temperature stilled the air, too, and the desert quieted as it waited for night.

Luke and Rey were hurrying across the desolation, heading back the way they had come. Luke used his comlink to contact the Millennium Falcon, but the rendezvous had to be carefully planned; the Falcon didn’t dare land out on the surface of the Goazon because there was no way to know exactly where any of the gateways and traps were located, or how much weight would activate them. Instead, Chewbacca would “hop” the Falcon over Carbon Ridge and fly out to intercept them, doing a touch and go like they had on Ahch’tu.

Exactly where they were going was yet undetermined, though. Luke had indeed received a message from Ben, but it said only “Mother needs help” and nothing more. He could feel that something was happening up there where Leia was; fear, resignation, then surprise and joy.

And now, he could feel her coming this way.

Luke stopped to get his bearings, then looked up, searching.

Far above, he spotted something black; a tiny speck in the gray that was growing larger by the second. Even though he couldn’t see it clearly yet, Luke knew who it was. The feeling was strong; it was also unique; Luke only felt it when he was in the presence of his family.

Ben was back and he had Leia with him.

Luke had no idea whether this was good or bad; Ben went to “help” his mother, but was she now his rescue or his prisoner?

Rey was still walking ahead and unaware of what was coming, and when Luke looked her direction, he saw a flash of light in the distance that was the Falcon coming over Carbon Ridge. Chewy would be arriving in just minutes, and getting into the air would provide more options than just watching. If the Transport headed for the gateway, they could follow.

Luke looked up again.

The Transport was coming down in an unusual manner; its nose was raised slightly even though it had no need to air-brake, and its batwing foils were still fully deployed. Then Luke noticed that there was something bulging from the Transport’s underbelly. It almost looked as if the Transport was attempting to lay an egg…

_Oh._

 

…...

 

Aboard the Visitor, the crew was watching anxiously as Poe worked to mimic every move the Transport made. Their rescuer had brought them safely back into Jakku’s atmosphere, far from the Finalizer and those TIE fighters, but where they were going – and why – was a complete mystery.

“It’s slowing down,” Poe reported as he made the adjustment, “and leveling off.”

Dar Noaa was standing beside him; he hadn’t taken his eyes off the waveform display since they started the descent. He tapped the display and a holographic image emerged; it showed the location of every vessel within the Visitor’s range, and aside from the Transport above and one small ship moving below them, the region was clear.

Leia came up beside him and looked into the image.

“That’s the *Falcon*,” she pointed at the ship below. “It’s Luke!”

Dar Noaa had no need to ask how she knew; if she said her brother was there, it was true. He’d probably sense it in another few minutes when the distance between them was shorter.

Leia’s face changed; she looked pained now.

“Ben’s *leaving*,” she whispered.

“Yes,” Dar Noaa replied; he’d seen this coming. “He must; the First Order can’t see us, but they’re tracking *him*. Jakku is crawling with First Order troops; this Transport is not following protocol and by now, they’re suspicious.”

“He’ll lead them away.”

“Yes.”

“What can we do?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he replied.

Leia stared down, thinking; Dar Noaa let her. Nothing he could say would make this moment any less painful for her. He turned to Poe.

“Let me know the instant topside clearance changes.”

“Yes, sir.”

They didn’t have to wait long; within seconds, the display reported a change; the Transport was rising, pulling up and away from them.

 “Ninety degrees negative,” Dar Noaa commanded. "Now."

 “Yes, sir.”

 Closing her eyes, Leia braced herself for it.

 

……….

 

Down below, The Millennium Falcon was hovering with its ramp extended.

Luke and Rey made running jumps onto the ramp, then raced to get inside. Luke went directly to the cockpit to join Chewbacca.

“Let’s go!” He tapped the Wookie as he slid into the copilot seat, then pointed to the navigational display. “Intercept course – *there*.”

Chewbacca snorted; the display identified it as a First Order Transport.

“Just do it.”

Chewbacca obeyed; the Falcon shot up at a steep angle, quickly closing the distance between it and the Transport, and as it approached, they saw something drop from beneath it and fall.

“Follow it down,” Luke ordered.

Chewbacca pitched the Falcon’s nose down into a steep descent, pushing the ship to its limit in order to intercept the other ship while both ships still had enough altitude to pull up. Below, the Goazon was growing closer with terrifying speed.

“Circle it, so they can see us,” Luke instructed, “When it levels off, get in front of it.”

Chewbacca growled; they were cutting this very close; one misjudgment would mean crashing into each other and then plummeting to their death. Luke didn't seem concerned about that, but Han would have trusted him.

_"Never tell me the odds."_

Han's words rang in Chewbacca's head; in all their years flying together, Chewbacca never did.

And he wasn't going to start now.

 

……….

 

Aboard the Visitor, the separation had everyone’s attention.

All but one of the crew members were completely engaged in either piloting the ship or watching the action unfold as it dropped like a stone towards hard ground below.

The one, Leia Organa, was looking up, experiencing a different kind of separation. She sensed the Transport moving away; she sensed when it slipped out of the atmosphere and glided into orbit; she sensed Ben pause, she felt his pain and then she heard him.

“ _I’m sorry.”_

Then he was gone.

Leia lowered her head and silently chided herself for expecting too much too soon. He was leading the First Order away, all right; he’d gone straight into space and then jumped. Ben arrived out of nowhere and saved the day, but no sooner than he’d saved her, he’d left her again.

_Just like his father._

_Where is he going? Why is he going?_

The sound of the Visitor’s proximity alert brought her back to the cockpit. Every one was looking at the display, which now identified that the ship approaching them was indeed the Millennium Falcon.

“Level off here,” Dar Noaa said. “Let’s see what it does.”

Leia felt the jolt as Poe pulled the ship out of free fall and guided it up to level off, then she saw the Falcon cut across their path. It banked back and took position ahead of them.

“Do we follow them?” Poe asked.

“Yes.” Dar Noaa answered.

 

………………….

 

As soon as he saw that the other ship was following, Chewbacca took the Falcon back to the landing site at Carbon Ridge; it was close and offered enough space for both ships to find cover there. In minutes, both ships were down, separated by just enough ground to ensure that if an escape became necessary, each ship could depart without interfering with the other.

The process of shutting down and securing the ships, then opening the doors, seemed to take forever; but finally each crew was outside. The ravine was already deep in shadow and neither ship could risk kicking on their floodlights, so all they could see was silhouettes against the glow of open entries.

Finn did the math; Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca - and that *had* to be her.

“Rey!”

“Finn!”

The others watched the two run down and forward; the race ended in collision. Finn seized Rey up and spun her around; then he hugged her joyfully. The moment passed; he released her, but then he put his hands on her shoulders and looked deep into her eyes.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes,” Rey answered, “What about you?”

“Now that you’re back, I’m fine,” Finn told her, “I have *so* much to tell you!”

Rey smiled, but made no reply; in her excitement to see Finn again, and to see him well, she’d forgotten for a moment that so much had happened since she kissed him goodbye and left to find Luke Skywalker.

She was totally unprepared for this.

Poe arrived next, and with him was the young Sith she’d seen once before; he was the one who had given her that earring.

“This is Dar Na,” Poe made the introduction, then realized that Rey might find his crew-mate's appearance shocking, so he quickly added, “He’s Sith.” He turned to Dar Na. “And this is Rey.”

“I know this one,” Dar Na informed him, “She fights well.”

Poe looked from one to the other; there had to be story behind that comment, but neither seemed ready to share it.

He was about to ask when their little group was parted by the tall, shaggy body of a Wookie in motion, and behind him was Luke Skywalker; they were hurrying to greet General Organa, who was running toward them.

Leia flew into her brother’s arms and just stayed there.

 

Back at the Visitor’s entry, Dar Noaa watched the reunion in the shadows with very mixed feelings. Seeing Leia so happy pleased him greatly, but what would the Jedi do when he learned that the Sith he'd entrusted with his sister had caused her to be injured, and then, after that...

He was totally unprepared for this.

Luckily, there was a huge amount of freshly-acquired data waiting for him inside, and they wouldn’t notice his absence, anyway. So he left them to it and headed for the sanctuary of the workstation in Leia’s quarters.

 

…………….

 

Darkness fell hard and fast and cold, so the reunion moved inside the Millennium Falcon. After an impromptu celebration meal and something hot and strong to drink, the conversation turned to who and what and where and when.

Poe and Finn took the lead with reports of their adventures, giving Leia and Luke a chance to slip away to the cockpit to share some private time together. Chewbacca kept his comments brief, using snorts and easily understood gestures to encourage them on.

Dar Na said nothing at all, but he did project an air of interest.

And Rey offered only appreciative smiles.

The others failed to notice as she slowly drifted back, away from them, until she was standing close to Maz, who was resting quietly, listening to it all. She felt Maz’s cool, leathery hand touching her own hand and accepted the gesture. Maz understood that this reunion was not entirely joyful for everyone, and eventually things would be revealed that were going to cause hurt and anger. So far, Finn had had not asked her about her capture and escape; he was probably waiting for her to choose a time and place more private to share what must have been a horrible experience. The chatter became background noise as Rey withdrew into her own thoughts, rehearsing what – and how much – she should say about Dagobah.

She saw Master Luke return, but instead of going to the table to join the others, he walked directly over to her.

“The General,” he told her, “would like to talk to you; she’s in the cockpit.”

Rey released Maz’s hand and headed for the respite of being someplace, anyplace, else.

 

Alone for the moment in the Falcon’s cockpit, Leia looked out into the darkness and remembered.

_So many memories, made right here._

_Han and I did it in this seat. And that one, too._

_Ben learned to fly right here, sitting on his father’s lap._

_Then he’d climb onto me and fall asleep right there._

_The it all went so very, very wrong…_

“General?”

Leia looked up at Rey; the girl had arrived just in time to save her from her memories.

“Please,” she pointed to the empty copilot seat, “sit down.”

Rey stepped in front of the seat and dropped down into it, then looked at Leia nervously.

“Master Luke said you wanted to see me.”

“Yes; I was hoping you’d be willing to talk to me about Dagobah.”

“Oh.”

Leia saw the reluctance on Rey's face.

“I know it’s a lot to ask.”

“No… no, it’s all right. What do you want to know?”

“You spent time there," Leia put it out there plainly, "with my son.”

“Yes… ?”

“I know that Ben took you against your will," Leia hoped it would ease Rey's anxiety if she used her General voice, making it sound like a debriefing and not an inquisition. The general was calm and in control; the mother was not, but she had to ask. "Did he… hurt you?””

“No.”

“I know he was… injured.”

“Yes… he was.”

“And you helped him.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“I… we…," Rey searched for words. "We had to... cooperate... in order to survive.”

“I see.”

The silence that followed was torture for them both; Leia couldn't tell the girl what she’d read about her and Rey wouldn't tell the General anything more than what was absolutely necessary. Leia decided not to press on.

“That’s all for now,” she said quietly, “Thank you, Rey… for everything.”

Rey lowered her eyes; she knew her reluctance was frustrating for the General, but she didn’t know how she could explain what happened on Dagobah or how the General would react to her confession, because that's what it would be, a confession - she had been literally sleeping with the enemy there.

And not only that, she wished she still was. What could she say to explain *that*?

Rey smiled weakly, rose from the seat and headed for the exit.

Then she stopped and turned around.

“I know you want to know about your son, General,” she said. She didn’t know if the General would understand, but she couldn't bear to walk out without even trying to explain. “The truth is, I've never met Ben Solo; I only know *Ren*.”

Leia’s face brightened; she motioned for Rey to come back. And when the girl was settled in her seat again, Leia gave her an encouraging look and made the request.

“Then tell me about Ren.”

“I don’t know where to begin,” Rey sounded uncertain, “I was terrified of him… at first; but it turned out he was just as terrified of me as I was of him.” It seemed so different now that she was looking back on it. “He’d been hurt so badly, I was sure that he…" She paused, remembering those desperate hours, but the General didn’t need to hear about that. “… but he didn’t… and then...”

Rey paused again, searching the General’s face for a sign. The expression she saw there told her that she was with someone, perhaps the *only* someone in the galaxy, who would understand.

“… and then I got to know him...”

The floodgates were open; words poured out of Rey in a wild, emotional stream, slowing only when she ran out of breath. Leia caught every word and held onto it; this was something she’d wanted so desperately to hear for so long - and she was not going to forget a single word of it.

 

Not far away, the day’s action was taking a toll; everyone was worn out.

The banter in the communal space had dwindled; the conversation become slow commentary punctuated by long periods of quiet as everyone sipped their drink or played with leftovers to avoid revealing how tired they were. They were in one of the lulls when Leia and Rey returned.

Rey saw Finn slide from his spot at the Dejarik table to make room for her there, and she walked over to sit beside him. Leia didn’t follow her; instead, she looked toward the entry, then at the group.

“I’m heading back,” Leia told them, “so, goodnight, all.”

“Wait," Luke went to join her, "I'll walk with you."

Leia nodded, and the two of them left together.

 

A moment later, Finn gave Rey an nudge and said the words she was dreading.

“So, what about you, Rey?” he asked. “You *found* Luke Skywalker! I want to hear everything!”

“Not much to tell, really,” Rey replied softly. She glanced at Chewbacca; the Wookie’s eyes reassured her that he would not be adding to whatever she said. Her secrets were safe with him, and that gave her some courage. “We followed the chart and it led us to an island; well, it was actually this enormous rock...”

 

As he listened to what he considered a disappointingly boring account of what should have been an amazing adventure, Poe Dameron couldn’t help but notice that Rey’s return to the group had caused a seismic shift in it. He didn’t really know her; they’d met only briefly before she left to find Luke Skywalker, but she seemed like a nice girl. Poe knew that Finn idolized her; now Poe knew that Dar Na knew her, too, and the admiration in the Sith’s voice as he said “she’s a good fighter” was obvious.They were both looking intently at Rey, whose  forced smile said she was really uncomfortable with the situation.

Poe often found himself trapped in similar predicaments; in his experience, trying to be nice never worked, so he felt a little bit sorry for the girl. If she didn’t want to talk about her time with Luke Skywalker, maybe he could help her out by changing the subject.

And the next time she paused, he did just that.

“Rey.”

Saying her name was enough; she looked over at Poe, eager to let him take over.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Dar Na tells me you’re a good fighter.”

“Did he?”

“I'm *positive* there's a story there.”

 

Rey looked to Dar Na; he nodded his consent. This was her story to tell if she wished, and if she chose her words carefully, she could drag it into the last story of the night. And while telling it, she would take them away from Ahch’tu and delay the inevitable.

 

……………………

 

Aboard the Visitor, Dar Noaa had found a report that intrigued him.

It seemed insignificant at first; the Finalizer’s Navigation officer reported that they experienced an error while trying to chart the new Hosnian system. The Starkiller weapon caused the birth of a second star there, creating a binary system, but when the orbital data of the new binary was loaded into the Finalizer’s navigation program, the result was nonsense. The navigation officer ordered the sequence repeated, only to get the same result. He ordered diagnostics run on the entire galactic navigation program, which would take some time to complete due to its complexity.

 _The Hosnian *binary*?_ Dar Noaa thought. _That cannot be right._ _  
_

Based on the little he understood about the Starkiller weapon, Dar Noaa knew that it involved energy transfer, certainly enough to obliterate planets; but he had not considered that it could also be transferring matter. Had it actually been able to transfer the entire mass of a star across the galaxy to a single point where they...

_What? Reassembled it?_

_Unlikely._

_Maybe the Starkiller weapon didn't actually transfer anything; perhaps all it did was open a *door*..._

Dar Noaa put the Visitor’s navigational system to work on the problem, and after an hour of impatient waiting, the waveform display produced a holographic map for him. The Hosnian system was now in fact a binary, but there was something wrong about it; the two stars were moving much too fast; and even more disturbing, the orbital center of mass was billions of kilometers from where it should be – which meant that there was another mass affecting the system.

But that other mass was nowhere to be seen in the display; the exact spot where it should have been was occupied by a region of violent activity, blazing bright with high-energy emissions.

_Massive. Violent. Invisible…._

For a moment, Dar Noaa’s mind simply refused to accept it.

_Impossible…_

He was sitting there, trying to comprehend what he’d just discovered when he sensed Leia's return. He got to his feet, opened the door and went to tell her about it.

And walked right into Luke Skywalker.

 

……...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	25. Chapter 25

-25-

 

Carbon Ridge late at night was a place on which countless fireside tales were based; with Jakku’s double moonrise, the ravine where the Visitor and the Millennium Falcon had taken refuge was grotesquely transformed; black shadowed boulders grew claws and tentacles, gullies on the rocky walls of the ravine turned into black serpents waiting to strike.

Even the chill from the north carried the taste of danger in the dark; fine dust particles carried by the night breeze drifted into nostrils and open mouths, delivering a warning in faint odors and unpleasant tastes.

Overhead, that same cold, cloudless air showcased the galaxy; stars by the thousands interspersed with glowing nebulae and the fuzzy clouds of distant galaxies marched almost imperceptibly across the sky. But one of the fuzzy patches wasn’t a galaxy or even a nebula; it was much closer than either of those things, and it was moving. The First Order’s flagship was on “final approach”; soon the fuzzy glow approaching the moon would become a black scar on its surface.

And absolutely none of it mattered to Leia Organa.

She standing just outside the open entry of the Visitor, bundled up in a blanket she grabbed on her way outside, listening for sounds of trouble in the dark.

As soon as she and Luke entered the sip, Dar Noaa came to greet them and Luke immediately told her that he and Dar Noaa were going to “take a walk” and she should stay behind. She looked at Dar Noaa, who nodded in silent agreement; he also wanted her to stay out of it. She didn’t protest, but as soon as they left, she followed them outside and now she was keeping watch nervously from her spot at the entry because she didn’t see which way they went.

Her vigil was interrupted by sounds coming from the direction where the Millennium Falcon sat; the three young males had finally said their goodnight and were heading back to get some rest. Leia could hear the banter between them as they approached; Poe and Finn were praising Dar Na for something, but the young Sith did not respond to their words.

They seemed to materialize magically out the darkness.

“General?” Finn was instantly on alert when he saw her standing there, “Is everything all right?”

“Yes,” Leia replied, “I’m just waiting here.”

“It’s good we came back, then,” Finn said, “It’s too cold to be out here.”

“I’m glad you’re back, but I wasn’t waiting for you,” she explained, “Dar Noaa and Master Luke have gone for a walk.”

The two resistance fighters looked puzzled, but Dar Na was alarmed; he looked into the darkness as if searching, then turned and took a step. Leia moved in front of him, blocking his way; then she put her hand up and placed it against his chest.

“No, Dar Na,” she told him. “Not this time.”

The dim glow coming from the ship’s entry showed the silent protest on the young Sith’s face; but then he took a breath and stepped back, submitting to the Lady Vader’s will.

Leia knew how he felt; she wanted to run into the dark, too, but whatever Luke wanted with Dar Noaa out there was between the two of them, and no one should - or could - interfere. The other two young males were standing there waiting for an explanation they were not going to receive, so it made no sense to stay out in the cold any longer.

“All of you - inside,” Leia said quietly, "I’ll come with you.”

Then she herded them inside and closed the entry.

 

………

 

It was a cold and silent walk in the dark.

The Jedi and the Sith had come to the mouth of the ravine, where sand following the cold night breeze flowed like water around their feet and out into the blackness that was the Goazon. Guided by vision that required no light, Luke led the way with Dar Noaa following quietly behind.

Dar Noaa had run out of patience; he decided that if the Jedi Master was going to kill him for sleeping with his sister, there was no reason to go any further. He was cold and he was tired, and if he was going to die, this was as good a place as any.

So he just stopped walking.

Luke did not stop, so Dar Noaa spoke out.

“Know this, Jedi,” he said, “I regret *nothing*.”

Luke stopped.

“And I have had an extraordinarily difficult day,” Dar Noaa continued, “so if you are going to kill me, just get on with it.”

Luke turned around.

“That’s not why I brought you out here.”

“Then why are we here?”

“I want your opinion on something.”

“What?”

“Out there,” Luke turned his gaze back toward the dark expanse, “under the Goazon... under all of it... can you feel it?”

Dar Noaa’s anxiety was instantly replaced with curiosity and he reached out with the Force, searching.

He heard the hum first; coming from below, extreme low frequency sound, almost inaudible, even for a Sith, as if a single wave of it would span the entire planet. It was steady, too, like the whir of an engine in motion, spinning, generating power.

“I feel it.”

“What is it?”

“I do not know.”

“Down there, underneath, there’s a base the size of a city.”

“First Order?”

“Yes, but not First Order in origin. It’s Empire construction.”

“Empire?” Dar Noaa asked. “How could that be? Their bases here were all destroyed long ago...”

“The Empire fled into the Unknown Regions, taking everything they could with them; but they couldn’t take what’s out there, so they left it, along with a few stragglers and the illusion that nothing else remained behind.”

“How could they have kept it intact and undiscovered for so long?”

“It’s a mechanized metropolis, completely automated; no population, just the mindless workings of circuits and motors by the millions.”

“And the hum is the sound of an incredible power source.”

“Yes; whatever that power source is, it’s still going strong. We found a gateway to the underworld out there, and we saw it move; it’s still in operation,” Luke was starting to feel the cold, so he tucked his hands up inside his robe sleeves. “And they used fear to keep it undiscovered; my Padawan Rey says there are many stories of strange and terrible things happening on the Goazon; sounds and lights and beings vanishing without a trace.”

“Folktales,” Dar Noaa was not dressed for the cold at all, so he was shivering,“fantasies rooted in fact, feeding the fear until it became tradition; as effective as a million armed guards would be.”

“I think the First Order is only the latest of many visitors to this place since the Empire fell,” Luke said, “all working toward the same end – resurrecting the Empire one way or another.”

“There's no end to it, is there?”

“And there’s more, Noah...”

“What else?”

“Darth Sidius is alive.”

 

……….

 

In another part of the galaxy, the hijacked First Order Command Transport was in hyperspace, speeding to keep an important appointment in the Coruscant system.

And Ren was hungry.

The Transport was in hyperspace and safe from detection for awhile, so it was time to get on with some of the minor tasks he’d been putting off. He definitely needed to eat something, and Hux was behaving himself, shackled to the seat, sitting in absolute silence the whole time, so there was no reason not to feed him as well. Then he would have to let his prisoner out of the seat for for sanitary reasons, but he could combine that with his intention to make Hux open the mysterious container in the corridor for inspection.

That should be entertaining, since Ren already had an idea what was in there, but Hux did not.

He rose from the pilot seat and stood looking down at Hux, who was trying to put up a brave front by not looking up at him.

“I’m hungry,” Ren said. “How about you?”

Hux looked up, his face tight with suppressed rage, but didn’t reply. Ren sensed the terror behind the rage, and also the pain that was throbbing in Hux’s back from being confined to that seat for so long, and in spite of himself, Ren felt a tiny bit of compassion for him.

Perhaps a small gesture was in order…

Ren waved his hand and the metal cuffs opened, releasing Hux’s wrists. Without thinking, the humiliated general rubbed them, them cupped his freezing fingers together to warm them, too, and finally, he leaned forward, stretching his spine to ease the ache there as well.

When Hux straightened up again, he glared up at Ren with cold composure, the trademark of the First Order conditioning to which he’d been subjected all of his life.

“Traitor!” he snarled. “I am an officer of the First Order; I will *never* submit.”

“You already have. Twice.”

“I will kill you;” Hux bluffed calmly, as if the act was possible, “the first chance I get. You’d be wise to kill me right now.”

“You’re not that lucky, Armitage,” Ren replied, “you still serve a purpose. Get up.”

Hux rose stiffly and turned to face his captor.

“You first,” Ren gestured to the entry.

Hux obeyed and Ren followed him into the corridor. Once there, Hux proceeded to walk toward the Transport’s supply closet, which meant passing the container he’d left there in his haste, but Ren wasn’t going to let that happen. As soon as Hux was alongside of the container, he gave the command.

“Stop.”

Hux obeyed, but made sure he didn’t even glance at the object next to him.

“Look at it.”

Hux resisted the command at first, but it wasn’t defiance; his fingers were freezing from fear and he had absolutely no wish to know what was inside that container. In some ways it was even more terrifying than Ren was; it wasn’t his duty to know what was inside; his orders were to deliver it safely to Supreme Leader; and failing to do so was unthinkable. Somehow, Hux found the courage to turn and lower his eyes anyway.

Ren waved his hand and the seal on the container’s security lock cracked and fell away.

“This is *treason*, Ren,” Hux whispered.

Hux’s fear was entirely justified; there was no way he could escape sharing the blame for this outrage against Leader Snoke, and he knew it. There was also no way he could escape Ren, either; anything he tried now would be an exercise in futility.

“Treason is the least of your problems,” Ren advised him. “Now open it.”

Hux pressed his fingers against the dimly glowing latch release; there was a click, then then a hiss as the container top began to lift from the latches, allowing the cold, pressurized gas inside to escape. He slapped both hands over his mouth and nose and stumbled back, away from the opening; then he coughed and gagged, then coughed again.

Holding his breath, Ren approached the opening and looked into it, then quickly backed off.

“It’s dead,” he said, “decomposed.”

“What is it?” Hux gasped out.

“A body.”

Ren waved the container closed again; it sealed itself and then there was a quiet hiss as it re-pressurized inside.

“Why would Leader Snoke want that?”

“Why indeed?” Ren wondered, but only for a second; this task was completed, so they would move on to the next one now. “Let’s eat.”

 

…….

 

Far away, in another part of the galaxy, Leia Organa was pacing back and forth in her sleeping quarters.

She’d left the door open so she would hear any activity in the corridor, but a lot of time had passed since Luke and Dar Noaa disappeared into the dark, and she was starting to worry that perhaps things didn’t go as well as she had hoped.

That was a definite possibility, considering Dar Noaa’s ability to say the worst thing possible in the worst way possible, but Luke had always respected truthfulness, even when it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. Worst case scenario; Luke might knock Dar Noaa around some; but her brother would never draw a lightsaber on an unarmed being – not even a Sith – and Dar Noaa could hold his own in a Force fight...

But not against Luke.

It had been a long time since Leia and Luke had spent any appreciable amount of time together, so she did not know how powerful he was now. In the years since they’d first found each other, Leia learned to read her brother well enough to know that his power to use the Force had grown with his understanding of it, but he didn’t talk about it often.

And since she had chosen a different path for herself; she didn’t ask.

She did know that Luke had Dar Noaa’s serious respect, which was an important clue because Dar Noaa respected almost no one. She sensed it when the two met that first time; before everything fell apart and Luke left for the last time. Everyone believed that the tragedy at the Jedi Academy was what made Luke vanish, but the truth was that he’d been vanishing slowly for a long time prior to that. His calls and visits became less and less frequent, and when he did call, his words were always guarded.

Now that she thought about it, Leia realized that she lost Luke first.

Before Ben.

Before Han.

And she didn’t know why.

Now Luke was out there in the dark with Dar Noaa...

The sound of the ship’s entry opening seized her attention; she felt a rush of relief when she sensed both of them there together. As she went to greet them, she heard Dar Noaa’s voice.

“… we can estimate the mass of the new object by how it’s affecting the binary; but the question is not how massive it is, but is it massive *enough*.”

“Massive enough for what?” she asked.

“Ah, Leia,” he didn’t stop, he just put out his arm and hooked her by the waist as he passed, taking her along beside him, “Did you get Finn started on his records?”

“Yes; he’s in his quarters looking it over now.”

“Good, good; that should keep him occupied for awhile,” Dar Noaa stopped and let his arm drop, freeing her, “I need… your quarters; I want Luke to see what is happening in the Hosnian system… and we both need something warm to drink.”

“Of course.”

“And be quick,” he told her softly; making sure she knew that this was a request, not a dismissal, “we need the benefit of your experience.”

Leia nodded, then turned and went to make them something warm, pausing only to touch Luke’s shoulder as she passed.

Dar Noaa led Luke into Leia’s quarters, walked directly to the workstation and sat down to bring the display up. Luke came over and stood behind him as he worked.

“You’re sleeping with my sister.”

Dar Noaa caught his breath; he’d forgotten that the room was strong with lingering traces of two Force-sensitives and the Jedi standing behind him was certainly aware of it. There was nothing to be done about that; so he would respond with the simple, absolute truth.

“I love Leia,” he said, “as long as she will have me, I will stay by her side.”

“I know,” Luke replied, “I saw it in your eyes when I told you she was alive.”

Two simple truths; nothing more was needed; subject closed.

The requested holographic display of the Hosnian system formed, and they both watched the infant binary dancing its way toward destruction.

“When they used their super-weapon, the First Order had no idea that this would be the result,” Dar Noaa put his hand inside the display, his fingertip marking the location of the invisible new object that was pulling the stars in. “It appears to be a black hole; but it might be something else, something just as massive, and outside normal space.”

Leia returned with two steaming mugs. She passed one mug to Dar Noaa, then the other to Luke, then looked at the display.

“What’s this?” she asked.

“The new Hosnian system;” Dar Noaa adjusted the image so she could get her bearings, “it’s put on some mass since you were there.”

Leia stared into the display; the Hosnian system she knew was gone; two stars now marked the place where she lost so much. Hopelessly caught in each other’s gravity, their existence would be a tortured struggle to survive, a fittingly symbolic memorial for the Republic. Then her gaze drifted beyond all that, beyond the Colonies, beyond the Core, until it came to Coruscant.

“I see Coruscant is still with us,” she said sourly. “Why didn’t the First Order hit them, too?” she put her hand into the display. “It would have been just as easy, maybe easier, for them to target Coruscant; everyone knows its importance to the Republic. Just the financial aspect alone...”

“I know why,” Luke murmured, as if talking to himself, “It’s because *he’s* there.”

“Who’s there?” Leia asked.

“You cannot know that,” Dar Noaa looked up at Luke, “Not with any certainty.”

“Yes, I can,” Luke replied. “His obsession to rule the galaxy was rooted in Coruscant; it was his center of power. Always. He’s alive, and he’s *there*.”

Foreboding crept up Leia’s arms; the hairs stood on end, and she had to fold her arms tightly to make it stop. Fear that she thought she’d finally put to rest crawled out of hiding in her memory, and a voice that haunted her dreams long ago echoed once more in her head.

“Palpatine,” she whispered.

“Yes,” Luke confirmed her conclusion, “I told you that Endor wasn’t the end of it.”

Leia remembered; the two of them alone, looking at the collapsed and smoldering pyre that had consumed their father’s body. That was the only time they ever talked about the possibility, and at the time, Leia only wanted to believe that her war was finally over and the faint, unsettling tremor she sensed in the Force was just the fading trace of the darkest of Dark Lord’s demise.

She wanted to doubt Luke now, too, but she couldn’t. Leia knew he was right.

“So, the First Order is his new plan to rule the galaxy?” she asked.

“No, “ Dar Noaa answered her, “This, time he is working on a *much* grander scale; this goes far beyond ruling the galaxy; it goes far beyond stealing the Force.” He turned his attention to Luke now, his eyes eyes glowing with the horror of realization. “I was wrong, Luke - he doesn't seek to be the Force, he seeks to be the galaxy itself! You know the stories, do you not? The ones from the early times, about beings becoming immortal through the Force?”

“Yes, but only those are only stories; I never found any real evidence that it could be done.”

“Then imagine this;” Dar Noaa looked back at the holographic display; the countless tiny points of light there reflecting in his eyes. “What if, in taking the Force, Darth Sidius takes *all*? He devours the galaxy; all that remains is one entity; matter and energy suspended outside normal space-time; incorporeal, immortal, unbounded by time or distance; soulless… malevolent... insatiable for power...”

“This galaxy won’t be enough.” Luke concluded for him “it will drift endlessly through the universe, consuming everything in its path - until time itself ends.”

There was a long moment of agonizing silence as the three of them struggled to comprehend what had just been said. Leia put her hand on Dar Noaa’s shoulder.

“Tell me it’s impossible.” Her fingers dug in a little as she made the request.

“For real physics, yes,” Dar Noaa replied, “impossible. But for metaphysics… ?”

They both looked at Luke.

“Not without the use of real physics,” Luke was staring as he spoke, looking inward, searching his memories; perhaps all his research had value after all. He reached into the image and used two fingers to frame the location of the new object in the Hosnian system. “Technology was used to do this; but for what purpose? What happens here now?”

“The new object has disrupted the system,” Dar Noaa explained, “everything within its gravitational field will be ripped apart and sucked into it.”

“And then?”

“Then… “ Dar Noaa put his hand next to Luke’s and used his finger to chart a course, “… the new object will continue on its way. It’s trajectory will take it straight into the Core; it will get sucked into the gravity well of the super-massive black hole already there, like I told you.” Following the imagined route, his finger dove into the densely packed space imaged there. “If it’s massive enough, it will reactivate the Core, causing a surge that will pull everything within reach of the new gravity well into it at once.”

“And then?”

“As new mass gets added, the gravity well will expand exponentially, until there is nothing left outside it.”

“What about the Force?” Luke asked. “It’s not subject to gravity; how is he collecting it?”

“I do not know.”

“Consider the problem, Noah,” Luke encouraged, “if you wanted to draw the Force into the Core, how would you do it?”

Dar Noaa thought for a few seconds before responding.

“Force-sensitives touch the Force,” he began, “but we do not contain it; we do not store it; we simply direct it as its flow through us. If I wanted to siphon off the Force to someplace… else, I would require a means to do it, a mechanism to channel it through the unimaginable distance  and then focus it, directing it straight in. And to get it all, I would need technology that encompasses the entire galaxy… and nothing exists that does that.”

“Nothing that you know of.”

“I am speaking of technology that would be truly *galactic* in scale here. Something like that could not go unnoticed.”

“That base out there under the Goazon went unnoticed.”

“True,” Dar Noaa conceded, then tried to make things clear in his head. “All right, if we accept the possibility that a great machine has been built that encompasses the entire galaxy and yet, goes unnoticed… how do we find it? What would it look like? What would it be?”

No answer came; there was only silence as each of them asked themselves the questions over and over and over again.

 

……….

 

In another part of the galaxy, the Command Transport had just dropped out of hyperspace and was rapidly approaching the coordinates where Ren expected to find Supreme Leader Snoke’s famous traveling starship waiting for them.

The planet Coruscant was little more than a tiny distant point of light, though; their journey was not going to end there after all.

And they were alone.

When they dropped into normal space, they detected no activity in the vicinity; not even the ping of a navigational beacon noting their arrival. The silence was disturbing; Coruscant’s recorded official “greeting” and identification demand message was not received, either. It appeared that they were now flying through the heart of Republic space without being noticed at all.

Even Hux was unnerved by the silence.

“Where’s their security?” His question was a complaint. “We were told Coruscant has one of the most advanced and sophisticated monitor systems in the galaxy.”

“Who told you that?” Ren asked.

Ren wasn’t just making conversation; the fact that the Transport had penetrated Coruscant space and was now passing through it without any sign of confrontation suggested a connection.

“Representatives of the corporation that constructed ours.”

“We had contractors from the Republic working for *us*?”

“Does that surprise you, traitor?” Hux snarled. “We have many friends and business associates inside the Republic; beings intelligent enough enough to know which way the galaxy is turning,” he looked at the navigational display, “and I see that we are about to arrive at the headquarters of one of them in the next few minutes.”

Hearing that, Ren rechecked the display; they were approaching what appeared to be an asteroid. As they got closer, he saw that is was not rock at all; it was metal, an enormous polyhedron blazing with lights and activity. A gigantic sign flashed the most unexpected information:

 

                                       “WELCOME TO STARLIGHT ONE – HEADQUARTERS OF THE HOLONET"

                                                      “… Connecting The Galaxy Through Light And Sound… “

 

 


	26. Chapter 26

-26-

 

 

Finn was alone.

They’d returned from the reunion on the Millennium Falcon and gone their separate ways; Dar Na went to his sleeping quarters and Poe went to the cockpit and his favorite place to sleep, leaving Finn exclusive use of their sleeping quarters. General Organa stayed only long enough to tell Finn that Dar Noaa had created a file for him that might provide some clues to his past.

It took several minutes of struggling with fatigue and fear of what he might find in that file before Finn was able to make himself respond to the prompt to open it, but his desire to know was stronger than his need for sleep.

FN2187

Male; Designation: Sanitation

Acquired 4425.16; _TPU6_

“TPU6” was highlighted, indicating that Dar Noaa had linked it to another file, so Finn selected it.

A holographic display labeled “First Order Territories” formed in front of him, revealing dozens of worlds, each one indicated by a point of light and a label. Like Finn himself, none of the First Order’s forcibly annexed worlds merited names, only designation numbers.

But there it was; flashing to get his attention; TPU6.

Finn knew that TPU was official designation Technical Planet Unit. “6” meant that it was the sixth of such planets to submit. 4425.16 was his conscription day, the day he lost his family. Now Finn knew that he came from the Unknown Regions, and from this world; but what world was it? He returned his attention to the original file and saw that Dar Noaa had included a list of other linked files, so he selected the first one.

A business report appeared; at first it seemed like just another piece of propaganda because it raved and raved about the “quality” of the “technical staffing” provided by the Order’s Personnel Division. Finn scrolled through it quickly, but stopped when the report came to an image of the brown-uniformed Division Director standing proudly behind the technical staffing they provided.

Dozens of gray faces were staring out of the image, straight at him!

Finn’s eyes found the caption underneath and read:

“The Division offers only the best - exclusive TPU6 technical staffing available”

His world was their world! Who were they?

Finn selected the next file, but it was just another report of the same kind.

He selected another, then another, and then another after that.

Fatigue fueled his frustration, so he started to skip files, and he was almost drifting off to sleep when the next file he opened slapped him in the face:

“TPU6 Resource Management Reports Final Mine Closures Complete”

It was brief, but to the point; scarcity of the resource would result in increased cost and limited availability, and all remaining quantities of the resource would be transferred to Central Resource Control. And TPU6 was no longer able to support life, so Resource Management would be transferring all remaining technicians to other projects, with priority going to technical applications.

Finn’s homeworld was dead.

Disappointment swept over Finn; he’d seen worlds that had been sucked dry by the First Order, so he knew that even if he could get there, he would find nothing but waste. He closed the file and pushed himself back from the display, decided he was done for now and leaned forward again to close the session when something caught his attention.

One file, the final entry in the list, was different from all the others; this one had been added by General Organa. Typical First Order communication file; it had no title, just a code; but embedded in the code was “TPU6”.

Finn yawned and opened the file.

 **FROM:** **Central Archive**

**TO: KRT-002**

**RE: KRT-002 crystal assembly technical data**

**We are unable to fill your request at this time; KRT-002; subsystems assembly data unavailable.**

**KPS-001 status:UNKnown; No reference/restoration data can be provided at this time.**

**We strongly recommend that you contact Technical Division before attempting any modification to your crystal assembly.**

**RE: TPU6 source inquiry incl. History**

**Technical Production Unit 6, previously known as Kyrous, annexed 4425.10.**

**Population: 3 million (est*); native species: Kourin**

**Resources: quality crystals; crystal technology; technicians**

***Estimate of population is due to unexpected response to annexation; the Kourin destroyed their technology, including all records, followed by mass suicides. Crystal mining proceeded under military occupation; surviving Kourin conscripted to Technical Division. Non-native species population 1000 (est); mixed, Expansion Region origin; conscripted.**

Now Finn’s homeworld had a name, but it wasn’t his origin; his family would have been among the non-natives, conscripted…

His finger throbbed.

…………….

 

Not far away, aboard the Millennium Falcon, Rey was unable to sleep.

With the party over and everyone gone, the Falcon was quiet. Maz was sound asleep and Chewbacca had retreated to the sleeper back in the galley while she was still telling her story about how Da Na knew she was a good fighter. Master Luke had not yet returned from the Visitor, and Rey was grateful to find herself finally alone; she wanted to think, and she had a great deal to think about.

She thought about her confession to General Organa; she was afraid that she’d said too much.

She thought about Finn; she’d agreed to meet him outside in the morning to look over his new lightsaber. He would ask questions she didn’t want to answer, but she had no wish to lie to him.

And she thought about Ren.

She was tired, but there was no sound of rain to help her find sleep, and no one waiting for her there once she did. He was far, far away, but she had that strange feeling again, like she’d had on the Goazon, that if she went this way…

She rolled carefully out of the bunk, her feet landing on the floor with a soft thump, then she grabbed her blanket and started walking toward the corridor that would lead her to the exit.

“Rey?”

It was Maz, speaking from the other bunk; in the dim light, her eyes seemed luminous. Rey stopped and came back to her.

“I’m sorry I woke you.”

“I was not asleep,” Maz replied quietly, “I was remembering. And you? What are you doing/”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

“There will be many nights like that.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the price you pay when you love a Skywalker.”

Rey caught her breath; Maz said it as if it was a fact: _you love a Skywalker._ She wasn’t ready to admit it, not even to herself. Ren was like a natural disaster; one she didn’t see coming, not even in her dreams. He was a monster - then he wasn’t - and she was still coming to terms with that. She wasn’t ready to say it, either; at least not until he came back to her, and she was looking into his eyes again. She made sure her reply revealed nothing.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

Maz made a soft sound, not exactly a groan, but gently disapproving nonetheless.

“It won’t be easy,” she said, “there will be times of fear and loneliness, and always there will be risk.”

“Fear, loneliness and risk?” Rey’s answer was almost defiant, revealing more than she realized. “I’m Jakkun; we are strong. I know those things well; they do not rule me.”

“Hmmmm,” Maz closed her eyes and sank back into the cushion beneath her, “That’s good.”

Rey stood and waited for several minutes, until she heard a quiet snore that told her that Maz was asleep and the conversation was over. She still felt the pull to the entry and the cold dark beyond, but she decided she did not want to go there, so she crept back to her bunk and climbed in.

 

………

 

in another part of the galaxy, in the Coruscant system, the Command Transport carrying Ren, Hux and the container had been granted permission to dock, and was now sitting all alone inside an enormous hanger bay. So far, no one had come to meet them, and no transmissions had come either.

It was extraordinarily quiet.

Hux, who was accustomed to strict military protocol, was puzzled; someone of his rank should have been greeted accordingly. Forgetting for the moment what his situation was, he expressed his annoyance to the only audience available.

“This is highly irregular,” he grumbled.

“We’re a long way from home,” Ren replied, “This isn’t First Order territory.”

“No,” Hux felt his fingers go cold, “it isn’t...”

Ren sensed Hux’s apprehension, he felt it too; nothing about this place felt right.

Considering the size and scale of the Holonet, its corporate headquarters would be enormous, as the complex was; but it seemed cold and empty, as if there was little life inside. Its energy production was also enormous, but that was to be expected of the source from which signals were being sent out to two-thirds of the galaxy; but there was something odd and disturbing about that, too…

Ren’s flesh was tingling.

He knew this sensation; it was unforgettably uncomfortable - and it only happened when he was close to a large cache of Kyber crystals. The Knights of Ren had accepted many assignments related to the First Order’s obsessive quest to possess them; mostly performing reconnaissance of crystal-rich sites and secret negotiations that usually involved considerable quantities of crystals, some of which were very large. The large ones were the worst; they reacted to Ren’s presence, and Ren’s skin reacted to them.

A reaction this strong meant that there was a vast quantity of Kyber crystals nearby.

Ren’s knowledge of the Holonet was limited; he understood the fundamentals, but not the details, of its engineering. Historically, it made no use of Kyber crystals, but integrating them into the web could greatly improve transmission and amplification, just as it had improved performance in First Order weapons and the Ren Transport.

But such an upgrade, on such a scale, would have required billions of Kyber crystals, and as far as Ren knew, the First Order had cut the flow of crystal outside its boundaries down to nothing. Unless…

“Armitage,” he didn’t look at Hux as he spoke, “tell me about the Holonet deal.”

Hux forgot about the protocol question instantly; he stared at Ren for a few seconds, but his conditioning was broken now; if he resisted, Ren would simply make him comply.

“The project is classified,” he replied, “Strict Need To Know protocol; what I needed to know was when a shipment was expected so I could make… arrangements.”

“The Knights of Ren?’

“Rarely; the majority were private contractors. Our assignment was to provide safe passage through our territories, something your Knights had no need for.”

“These contractors; they came and went freely?”

“Yes,” Hux said, “We supplied them with crystals for their Holonet upgrade and they supplied us with technical assistance for ours.”

“Our Holonet is based on Republic technology?”

“Of course, it is,” Hux almost snorted with contempt for Ren’s ignorance. “Deliberately so; our Holonet is fully compatible with the Republic web; we took their design and improved it. And when the time is right, we will activate the integration hub; then we will control it from one edge of the galaxy to the other.”

“Was the improvement the introduction of Kyber crystals?”

“Yes.”

“Where?”

“Everywhere.”

“And when will the time be right?”

“Leader Snoke has not said,” Hux sneered, “But it will be *glorious*. Perhaps the first image we send out to the galaxy will be your execution.”

Ren laughed out loud; the way he saw it, the First Order was now a very long way from achieving a glorious anything; and Ren doubted he’d still be alive by then anyway.

“You can laugh?” Hux raged, “Soon you will be *my* prisoner, Ren; and I assure you, there will be no escape this time.”

“We’ll see.” Ren replied, but then he sensed something, and his mood changed in an instant; his voice became dark. “Our hosts are coming,” he finally turned his head to look at Hux, who’s reaction to his stare was poorly disguised panic. “Don’t do anything stupid, Armitage,” he warned. Then his tone softened, “and pay attention - this place isn’t what you think it is. I’ve got a bad feeling about it, and if I’m right, there may be no escape for either of us.”

Confusion joined the fear in Hux’s head; this was not the Kylo Ren he knew. The threat was expected, but the rest was not; Ren’s ‘bad feeling’ warning sounded almost…

“What’s happened to you?” he asked.

A small grin appeared on Ren’s face; but he didn’t reply. Hux had no Need To Know.

 

……...

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, Rey was getting desperate for sleep.

_You love a Skywalker._

Maz’s words wouldn’t let her alone; every time she gave herself a reason why it was not so, she heard them. Rey knew it was probably just Maz trying to manipulate her again, but if that was the case, then why would she include words about fear, loneliness and risk? Rey replied to those words boldly, but it was all bluff. She was terrified of how she felt about Ren; he was not merely a Skywalker – he was Kylo Ren. He was hated and feared, and with good reason; there was no getting around that fact.

_You love a Skywalker._

If she loved him, she would have to accept everything that came with; the hatred, the fear, the loneliness and the risk. She knew it, and it frightened her; yet, when Maz spoke of it, Rey instantly proclaimed that she was strong enough.

That was all Maz needed to hear; perhaps it was all Rey needed, too.

 

Sounds coming from the entry interrupted her thoughts; Master Luke had returned. He didn’t come to the communal space, though; he’d gone directly to the cockpit. Rey listened for a few minutes, but heard nothing more, so she wriggled a bit, trying to find a more comfortable position, and then she tried silently reciting spec manuals to herself to crowd her other thoughts out and make room for sleep to come. She was halfway through “motivator replacement” when she heard it.

“ _Rey.”_

Master Luke was calling her; she heard him clearly, but his voice was barely more than a whisper. Had she just imagined it?

No. Master Luke wasn’t speaking aloud at all; he was in her head. She replied with a thought.

“ _Coming.”_

Slipping silently out of the bunk so she wouldn’t disturb Maz again, Rey walked quickly to the cockpit. The light there was dim, but she could see Master Luke sitting the pilot seat, gazing out into the darkness, as if he was deep in thought.

Rey went directly to the copilot seat and sat, then waited. A few minutes passed before he returned from wherever his mind was and looked at her.

“You heard my call,” he said, “And you answered it.”

“Yes, Master Luke.”

“And you can hear Ben, too.”

Rey understood that this was just a formality; the Jedi Master was asking for confirmation of something he already knew.

“Yes."

“And he can hear you?”

“I don’t know,” she replied.

“If I ask you to try,” Luke leaned over and took her by the hand, “will you send him a message from me?”

“Yes, of course; but surely you can do it much better than I could.”

“Something has clouded the Force,” Luke explained. “No one can communicate through it; not even me,” He was looking into her mind now, she could sense it. “But *he* can.”

“Yes.”

“And if he can, I believe that *you* can, too.”

Rey felt her face flush; fortunately, it was too dark in the cockpit for Master Luke to see. Did he know what he’d said to her as he left? Did he know what she said back? And did he know that as she was sitting here talking to him, part of her was burning with regret that she hadn’t said more?

“I can… try.”

“Good,” Luke released her hand, “Now close your eyes and clear your mind… “

Rey knew the process; it was one of the first things Master Luke chose to teach her, and he did so with great patience, in small steps with little result. With Ren, it was totally different; he’d given her the knowledge in a single, reckless instant. She closed her eyes; there was little need to clear her mind because all she had to do was remember their last moments together and everything else fell away.

“Can you feel him?”

“Yes.”

“Tell him… warn him; Palpatine is alive.”

 

…….

 

In another part of the galaxy, inside Starlight One, Ren had cuffed Hux to the container securely, and was pinching the broken seal back into position on the lock. It only took a quick spark of red to weld it together, and it looked good enough to pass casual inspection. In the dim light of the corridor, his work did not go unnoticed.

“What was that?” Hux asked.

“Nothing.”

“Right.”

Ren turned quickly and grabbed Hux’s wrist, then jerked it as if testing the cuff, just enough to give Hux a painful reminder of his situation.

“Be smart about this,” he said, “Play your part, and nothing more.”

“Or you’ll kill me?” Hux hissed, “You’re going to do that anyway.”

“Perhaps,” Ren’s voice was cold, “or I might just make you *wish* I would kill you.” He paused to give Hux time to imagine what that meant before he added, “*Desperately* wish it.”

Hux glared at him in silence.

Satisfied that Hux understood, Ren gestured toward the entry door and it opened, allowing a narrow beam of bright light from the hanger to enter. Hux squinted and raised his free hand to block it. Ren stepped aside, making way.

“You first.” he said.

Locked to one side of the container, Hux had to maneuver it around, getting behind because, once on the ramp, it would roll on its own, and the only way he could avoid being run over and dragged was to act as a brake from behind. Ren made no effort to help him; instead he went to the open entry and looked out.

A squad of heavily-armed humans dressed in dark blue uniforms was waiting below. Aside from what looked like ID badges on their left chest, they wore no insignia at all. It was unlikely that General Hux of the First Order could command this lot; their loyalty lay elsewhere.

Whether Kylo Ren could command them was yet to be determined.

Hux and the container rolled past him, and Ren followed them at a slower pace, holding onto the advantage of being above them all as long as he could. Gathering speed as it rolled, the container quickly had Hux scrambling to keep on his feet behind it, and once on the floor of the hanger, it rolled straight toward the waiting squad, separating them, then came to a stop behind them.

Seeing the soldiers between him and Ren made Hux bold.

“He’s a traitor!” he shouted and pointed with his free hand,”Kill him!”

The soldiers looked at him, but did nothing; a few contemptuous snorts replied to his order.

Ren strode down the ramp, through the squad, walking straight to Hux and the container. With a gesture, he lifted Hux off the floor and choked him, then lowered him again. Then he surveyed the soldiers that now surrounded him.

“Who’s in charge here?” he asked.

One of the blue uniforms stepped forward.

“I am, sir.”

“We have a delivery for Snoke.”

“Yes, sir,” blue uniform replied, “Director Snoke is expecting it.”

A side glance revealed that this particular title for Snoke was news to Hux, too; he was still recovering from the Force choke, but already reconsidering Ren’s earlier advice.

“You are to come with me,” blue uniform said, then he turned to lead the way.

Surrounded now by blue uniforms, Ren, Hux and the container followed.

It was a long walk through narrow tunnels; except for intersections, there were no doors, no entries of any kind. The ceiling was the only source of illumination, bright sources behind translucent panels filled the space with unpleasant light. The sound of feet and wheels in motion bounced off the walls in tiny echoes, making the tunnel seem endless. Minutes ticked by; Ren concentrated on remembering which turn went where because this particular route could easily become a trap if he had to escape through it. The blue uniforms had shown no surprise or suspicions about his presence there; they’d performed no searches and didn’t attempt to disarm him, which indicated that they were aware of who he was, which meant that Snoke was expecting him.

It was an unnerving reminder that Snoke knew Ren better than anyone, including Ren himself.

The march had come to the end of the tunnel; they stopped at a dead-end.

“Wait here,” blue uniform said.

Then he left, going back the way they ‘d just come, taking his soldiers with him.

Ren and Hux watched them shrink away and disappear into a turn, leaving them alone with the container. A soft whoosh from behind turned their attention back to the dead-end wall; it was vanishing; not melting or dissolving, not even evaporating – it was subliming, going to straight to a gas, giving off a distinct odor of ozone as it disappeared.

This time, Ren led the way; stepping through the cloud of gas, he found himself inside a large chamber. The floor, the walls, even the ceiling, were lined with circuit panels; and in the center was a small throne made of what appeared to stone.

And there, sitting on that throne, was a little, shrunken and deformed creature.

Ren, and then Hux behind him, stopped and stared.

“At last,” the creature greeted them. That voice was unmistakable. “My two perfect boys have come to me.”

“Supreme...” Hux’s mind couldn’t quite grasp the reality, “… Leader… ?”

“You have done well, General.”

“Ren betrayed us!” Hux found his voice at last,“He destroyed the Finalizer; he stole my transport; he kidnapped me; and he… he opened the container!”

“Is that true, Kylo Ren?” little Snoke asked.

“Absolutely,” Ren replied. “Hux killed my knights, so I killed his ship. I would have killed him as well had I not needed him to bring me here, to you. And the container is worthless; the body inside is dead.”

“Unfortunate,” little Snoke spread a hand, considering, “It was the last one.”

“Power outage, sabotage, somehow,” Ren told the story as he believed it, “it thawed, it died, and when the power was restored, it froze again. No clone could have survived that.”

“As I said, unfortunate,” little Snoke seemed indifferent to what he was hearing. “But I have another option.” He leaned forward in Ren’s direction, as if he was sharing a secret, “I would have given you the honor, Ren, but alas, you won’t do.”

Snoke's words struck like lightning; Ren understood the meaning instantly.

They’d tried repeatedly to clone his cells in order to create the ultimate army of conquest; experiment after experiment that ended in failure because his cells resisted artificial replication. He was one of a kind. And all the damage in his head, that he now knew was done by Snoke, made him unacceptable as a “recipient”.

They never explained recipient of *what*, and Ren never asked.

He’d forgotten about those experiments until that day on Ahch’tu when he discovered his uncle’s journal and that remnant of Darth Sidius’s book. Sidius wrote that he could transfer his mind into a younger body cloned of his own cells and thus achieve immortality by replicating his body endlessly and moving from from one to another forever.

One’s own cells were best, but any compatible body could be used...

“Supreme Leader,” Hux shook his cuffed wrist, rattling it against the container, “Look at this – he has me chained! Make him release me at once!”

Without looking in Hux’s direction, Ren waved his hand and the cuffs flew open. Hux mistook the gesture as a sign of Ren’s submission to Snoke and stepped forward with confidence restored.

“This traitor must be punished!” he shouted, then spun around to confront Ren, “No Skywalker can be allowed to live!”

Ren didn’t answer him.

Snoke said he had two perfect boys. Two perfect boys, for two different purposes.

And Hux had no idea, no idea at all…

 

…………..

 


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fighting the real world for time right now. Not only at the job, but I'm working at the polls next Tuesday. IF I survive that, I'll probably be brain-fried afterwards; so the next chapter may take longer to get out than I'd like. But it will get here, I promise. :-)

-27-

 

On Jakku, morning twilight had come to the ravine near Carbon Ridge.

The nightime cold had done its job well; the air was still and crystal clear as the sky began to brighten. Night creatures were already back in the safety of burrows and dens and day creatures were still fast asleep in theirs; anybeing happening upon the site would consider it lifeless. But it wasn’t silent; a low frequency hum seemed to roll along the ground; it flowed around rocks and boulders and up the sides of the ravine then back down again in waves, like an invisible ocean meeting the shore. As soon as the sun rose, the winds would start again and the hum would be lost to the sounds of day. But this morning, the desolate silence of the ravine was was broken by the sounds of two doors opening, then footsteps and frosty breath.

Midway between the Millennium Falcon and the Visitor, Rey and Finn met.

Finn reached inside his jacket and pulled out his lightsaber, then held it out for Rey’s inspection.

“The hilt is Dar Noaa’s design, not mine,” he explained, “but I put it together.”

“Show me.”

Finn stepped back, then to the side, and then swung his arm out and ignited it; the yellow plasma blade glowed in the gloom. Then he pulled the lightsaber back to meet his other hand, and used both to hold it in ready position.

“It’s beautiful.” Rey said admiringly.

“It is, but it’s not the same as yours,” Finn let his eyes fall on the lightsaber in Rey’s hand, “Have you been training with it?”

It was a tricky question; Master Luke had gone over the fundamentals and a few simple exercises with her; she could share that with him. But she had to be cautious, lest Finn see her skill and start asking questions she didn’t want to answer. And there was no way he wouldn’t recognize the style.

“Yes.”

“Show me.”

Rey assumed position, then ignited the lightsaber. Like Finn’s, the twilight gloom made its blue plasma blade seem deeper and richer in color than she remembered. This was the first time she’d used it since returning to Master Luke, and the blue glow evoked the memory of fighting for her life in the snowy woods and the rage that left Ren with that scar on his face.

It was Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber, but Master Luke never referred to it that way; whenever he spoke of his father, which was seldom and only if asked, he always called him Darth Vader. He didn’t show any interest in handling or possessing it, either; perhaps the memories associated with it were not ones he wished to revive.

“Well?’

Finn’s words were like a sharp poke in her soul; he was impatient to see what she’d learned in the short time she’d been a Padawan, and that was all she intended to show him. She stepped back from him and began to perform a simple routine; her movements were slow and deliberate, and easy to follow.

Finn watched for a few minutes, then stepped beside her and began to mimic her every move.

 

They were unaware that there were now two others present, one at each ship entry, standing quietly, watching them. After a few moments, both started walking toward the action, moving simultaneously as if one mind was directing them both. Being careful to stay clear of lightsabers in motion, Dar Noaa walked past Rey and Finn to join Luke on the other side, but did not greet him. Instead, he took a place beside Luke and both observed the activity in complete silence.

As soon as a routine came to completion, Rey would return to ready position and begin another. At first Finn’s movements lagged behind hers, but with each repetition, the delay became shorter until he and Rey were moving in unison. Then Rey would start a brand new routine and the process would begin again.

Luke saw himself in their movements, and someone else, too. For a novice, Rey displayed a remarkable understanding of the weapon in her hands. Part of that understanding came from her skill with a staff, but her ability with the lightsaber had the mark of experience, well beyond her level. But for the considerable effect of the lightsaber’s weight in her smaller hands, watching Rey was like watching Ben Solo; no, it was like watching Kylo Ren; except that Rey moved with a natural grace that neither Luke Skywalker nor Kylo Ren possessed. Luke had little formal training; his style was the product of painful experience. Some said he lacked the grace of a real Jedi, but those critiques never touched Luke because he knew that true grace in a Jedi did not come from his lightsaber; it came from his heart.

“They learn quickly,” Dar Noaa finally broke the silence, “do they not?”

“Yes,” Luke replied quietly, “especially from each other.”

“What do you think?”

“You mean the color?”

“Yes,” Dar Noaa took his eyes off the action to look at Luke, “I know that the Jedi temple guards were said to have it, but nothing more.”

“Jedi Temple guards?” Luke kept watching Rey and Finn. “Yes, but this yellow is not the same.”

“Young Finn will be disappointed to hear that.”

“Perhaps not,” Luke gave Dar Noaa a quick look, then returned to watching. “There are other possibilities. Long ago, even before the Old Republic, the records spoke of certain Jedi that were known by the yellow blades they used. They were a lot like... you.”

“Me?” This was something the Sith did not expect to hear. “In what way?”

“They were more interested in real physics than metaphysics.”

“Scitechs?” Dar Noaa was suddenly very interested. In many ways, the Jedi and Sith were more alike than either group was willing to admit; the Jedi had its share of Force-sensitives doing real science for them, just as the Sith did. He never considered those Force-sensitives in that way, but the idea was interesting. “Like me?”

“Similar, in many ways, I think, including the friction they caused,” Luke recalled it from one of the texts he’d burned back on Ahch’tu. “Some found life among the Jedi difficult, so they accepted the most remote assignments; they traveled the galaxy seeking Force-sensitives for training and worlds with promising technology. Some texts referred to them as Sentinels because many of them became so attached to their host world that they would remain there for years, looking after them, keeping watch.”

“That is it!”

“What?”

“They were right,” Dar Noaa said, “Finn is one of yours.”

“Who was right?” Luke asked, “One of my what?”

“The allies we did not know we had,” Dar Noaa answered. “They know Finn; they know he is Force-sensitive, “ he pointed at Finn. “They gave him the Kyber crystal in that lightsaber; and they think he comes from the Light Side, which he would be if his ancestors were Jedi.”

“These allies,” he asked, “Do you know who they are?”

“Yes,” Dar Noaa replied. “we found them in the files we took from the Finalizer. They call themselves Kourin; young Finn there was taken by the First Order from *their* homeworld.”

“Tell me about them.”

“Gifted beings, in many ways,” Dar Noaa said. “Their world lies deep inside the Unknown Regions; it was remarkable for both its Kyber crystals and its native species. The crystals were superior and the Kourin had a natural talent for exploiting them, especially in their technology; most of which was based on the manipulation of Kyber crystals. There is no mystery in why that would have attracted the attention of your Jedi explorers.”

“True.” Luke agreed.

“Their world was peaceful,” Dar Noaa continued, “they were curious by nature, but totally unaggressive. If your Scitech Jedi, your Sentinels, established themselves there in order to learn the technology, they would have found acceptance; perhaps they decided decided to stay with the Kourin permanently,” he paused for a second, confirming his conclusions before speaking, “so their descendants were there when the First Order arrived; they were swept up in the conscriptions that followed along with the Nourin.”

They both were watching the exercises again now.

“Finn’s is a tragic story,” Dar Noaa sighed, “but all too familiar. The Nourin knew nothing of conquest; they were totally unprepared to defend themselves against an aggressor like the First Order. When they realized what was happening, they fought back they only way they knew; they deprived the invaders of the prize they sought; they destroyed their technology, and then themselves, rather than surrender it to the First Order.”

Luke sighed now; it was indeed a familiar story.

“But this,” Dar Noaa went on, “is where the story takes an interesting turn; all surviving Kourin were pressed into service because of their technological ability; the First Order used them *everywhere*. It is possible that there is not one piece of technology in their “perfect” order that does not have Kourin design and construction at the heart of it.” He saw something he didn’t like in Finn’s movements and scowled, but didn’t interrupt his story to address it. “Finn remembers being helped by a Kourin when he was a small child, and he believes that they have been helping and protecting him all along. I believe it, too.”

Luke also noticed Finn’s error. It could wait.

“Imagine it; Luke,” Dar Noaa was starting to sound excited, “what if the Kourin have been *resisting* the First Order from within since the day they were taken? A whole generation, slowly and secretly engineering revenge right under their master's eyes! Perhaps they have decided that it is time to act on it, but they want - or need - our help.”

“What could they want from us?”

Dar Noaa considered for a minute, then pointed at the two sparring young ones.

“*That*.”

The two of them watched Rey and Finn in silence for a few minutes, then Dar Noaa added.

“But I do not know why.”

 

……..

 

In another part of the galaxy, not far from Couruscant, deep inside the headquarters of the corporation that built what billions of beings considered to be the greatest achievement in galactic history, a horrific revelation had just been made.

 

Ren was silently reciting the Code to himself.

It was the only way to keep himself calm and focused as the white uniforms entered the chamber where he’d finally found Snoke; they’d come to collect Hux for harvesting. Ren didn’t dare permit himself to feel even a spark of compassion for poor Hux, lest Snoke sense it.

The white uniforms surrounded Hux and took hold of his arms.

“What is this? Don't touch me! “ Hux demanded, his usual arrogance sounding brittle, as if one more touch would make him crack, “Supreme Leader… ?”

“Take him,” Snoke ordered, gesturing toward the entry, ignoring his perfect general’s words. “Begin preparations at once.”

Paralyzed by confusion, Hux didn’t struggle; he went quietly, except for one second when he twisted himself around and looked back at Ren, silently pleading for an explanation, for help. Ren didn’t react; it was better for Hux if he didn’t know what was about to happen to him; and there was nothing Ren could do about it anyway.

For now.

As soon as the white uniforms had gone, taking Hux and the spoiled container with them, Snoke pressed a button on the arm of his little throne and it rose from the floor, raising him up as it moved forward, bringing his misshapen and scarred head to Ren’s level.

“Does my appearance surprise you?” Snoke asked.

“I was expecting something… taller.”

“I was taller once,” Snoke replied, then smiled. “And soon I will be again.”

“Hux?” Ren made it sound disdainful. “Seriously?’

“Don’t be jealous,” Snoke took the bait. “Choosing Hux serves us both; Once the transfer is complete, I will have not only his body, but his power. Hux is the face and the voice of the First Order; no one will dare question anything he, that is... *I*, command,” He paused, enjoying the thought. “And with you at my side to ensure their obedience, they will bleed themselves dry conquering the galaxy for me.”

Ren didn’t reply; Snoke was almost giddy, speaking without the caution he would have used in the past; there was a chance he would reveal a great deal if encouraged at the right moment.

“And for you, too, of course!” Snoke corrected himself. It was an afterthought, though, lacking sincerity. “I’ve worked and waited for this day for a very long time… “

“You have said so,” Ren replied, making a subtle suggestion. “You said you watched the Empire rise and then fall… ”

“Yes, yes!” Snoke jumped back in, “I was there from the start; from the very hour the great plan was revealed.”

“The great plan? The Empire? That didn’t go so well.”

“No, the Empire was just the *beginning*,” Snoke bragged. “We used it to set the cornerstones of the great plan; planting suspicion and hate from one star system to another, watching it grow; and while they fought amongst themselves, constructing our weapons and quietly building a cage around them all.”

“A cage?”

“You know it as the Holonet.”

“The Holonet?” Ren was surprised. “I know it’s value for influence and control, but… ”

“Oh, it’s so much *more* than that now!”

“How so?”

“That is not for me to say.”

“Why not?”

Snoke didn’t reply; his shriveled lips tightened as he considered his answer to the question.

“It is time that you should know everything,” he was talking to himself now, “but I will need to… make arrangements for that,” Then he put out an open hand, gesturing toward the entry. “Come with me, I’ve had quarters prepared for you,” He steered his throne to lead the way. “You can rest and make yourself presentable while you wait.”

 _Presentable?_ Ren thought. _Who for?_

But he didn’t ask the question. Snoke’s plans for him were secondary to his plan to get away from Snoke now, so he followed him in silence, looking for surveillance sensors, frozen walls, and anything unusual that could become important in an escape. What he observed was neglect; little had been done here in years; security sensors were coated with oxidation; there was a smooth line of fine dust where the floor met the walls, evidence that it had accumulated there due to the movement of air currents and not bodies in motion. It was curious that someone who supposedly cruised the galaxy endlessly in order to avoid being found would be so relaxed in this place.

Perhaps that story was just one more illusion too toss on the pile of lies that Ben Solo and the Kylo of Ren had swallowed whole. If so, it was actually good news, because if Snoke was convinced that he was safe here, it was possible that it wasn’t as well secured as Ren feared.

Several tunnels and a lift ride later, Snoke delivered Ren to a chamber entry and quickly departed.

Inside, the chamber was almost identical the one he’d spent so much time in while aboard the Finalizer; it had the same austere functionality; a container of cubes was waiting for him, and an entire set of clothing was laid out on the sleep platform for him, all black, including a helmet. There was something both comfortable and disturbing about the familiarity, so Ren moved cautiously.

Despite being hungry, he decided not to taste the cubes. Just in case.

The clothing was another story; the reinforced sleeves and surcoat would serve a purpose, as would the gloves, but the new tunic and pants remained untouched. Wearing his own tunic and pants was wearing *her*; they still carried a tiny trace of her and he could almost feel her touch when the fabric moved against his skin, a gentle reminder of what she’d said.

_Come back to me._

Right now, he wished he’d never left.

Once he had the sleeves and surcoat on, Ren noticed how heavy and confining they were; the black costume that once defined him was uncomfortable now. Perhaps if he made it back to her, she could cut it off again while he watched. There was something incredibly appealing about that idea, but he pushed it out of mind as he pulled on the gloves, and now there was only one more item to consider.

Ren and the helmet stared at each other for long time.

The helmet was pristine, devoid of the dents and scratches that the Kylo of Ren regarded with pride because he’d earned every one of them. In the dim light, its smooth, glistening surface reflected Ren’s image back at him, reminding him of his lost Knights and how easily Snoke discarded those who outlived their usefulness. And the shadowed face mask whispered of the darkness that almost consumed him; taunting him that he could never be free of its influence.

The helmet's very existence was offensive now; Ren hated the idea of putting his head inside it, but he knew that if there was any way to get out of his present predicament, he would need to be Kylo Ren again to do it, and in that, the helmet would serve a purpose; necessity required it, so he put the helmet on.

Inside, it was black and suffocating, and he was about to pull it off again when he felt her.

_Rey!_

She poured herself into his head like the night rain on Dagobah, washing everything else away.

_**Master Luke says Palpatine is alive.** _

_**Come back to me.** _

For a few seconds, Ren didn’t think at all; he just let her flow through him, pushing the darkness out; it was just what he needed...

Then he remembered what she’d just told him.

 _Palpatine?_ He thought. _Darth Sidous is *dead*. Long dead. But Snoke wanted me to make myself presentable…_

_Palpatine!_

The “glory” that was Sheev Palpatine was something Snoke spoke of often; always with fevered adulation. And always in the *present* tense, as if his idol was there in the room with them. In all those hours of listening dutifully, it never once occurred to Ren to wonder about that. He usually just tuned it out by reciting the Code to himself while Snoke repeated the stories over and over again.

“*Palpatine* is the Empire,” Snoke would say, “and the Empire is *Palpatine*. His hand rules over every detail of the great plan - nothing is too insignificant, nothing is too immense.”

Snoke was Supreme Leader; Palpatine was his *god*.

A jolt of pure, dark, terror shot through Ren; the hand that ruled over every detail was the other hand in Rey’s vision!

Palpatine. Darth Sidous.

His was hand that ruled Snoke; the hand responsible for every miserable minute of Ben Solo’s life; the hand that would have easily killed a young Luke Skywalker if it hadn’t been for Darth Vader. His was the hand, so dark and powerful a lifetime ago – what power would it have now?

_Absolute Power.  
_

Ren’s mind was reeling; could anyone resist such power? How could he resist it?

He’d *have* to resist, because if Palpatine pulled him back to the Dark Side, Ren would betray everyone he loved; he’d destroy them all. He would not let that happen; he would find a way to escape somehow - but if he failed, should the worst happen, his only hope would be that Luke Skywalker would find him and destroy the monster once and for all.

Rey didn’t need to know any of that, though, and Ren didn’t have to tell her; his uncle would hear the unspoken message lying beneath the words. He tried to calm himself as he touched the Force; his message would reach her almost instantly; time and distance didn’t matter because he knew exactly where she was.

_**Palpatine. I think I’m about to meet him.** _

_**There’s something wrong with the Holonet.** _

 

…………

 

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, the morning lightsaber exercises had evolved; Rey and Finn progressed from side by side to face to face, slowly and carefully moving through the motions of an actual fight. Luke and Dar Noaa watched them closely, following their movements, staying out of the way.

The Sith interrupted them to give instructions, always to Finn and mostly about defensive moves.

Luke said nothing at all.

This morning he’d noticed something; something he’d seen many times but never considered significant before – what happened when lightsabers of different hues touched.  At the point of contact, the hues blended colorfully for an instant, then went white. It was understandable that this small detail of a lightsaber fight might have slipped by Luke because his personal experience always involved deadly serious, life-or-death combat and little else. Even at his academy, Luke rarely participated in training exercises, leaving that to instructors he’d chosen personally for their ability, because he didn’t think of himself as a warrior.

It wasn't his skill with a lightsaber that kept him alive, it was his skill with the Force.

Dar Noaa interrupted the action again, and this time, he made Rey and Finn keep their blades crossed as he talked. Luke watched closely, he saw hints of blue and yellow, even green; painful to look at, but gone in a flash.

Then something extraordinary happened.

To illustrate a point, Dar Noaa reached over and took hold of Finn’s lightsaber, placing his own hand over Finn’s to guide him through a motion. For a millisecond, maybe less, the bright point of contact between the blades flashed brilliant red, then white; and after that, both blades glowed brighter than before.

And they remained that way until Dar Noaa released his hold on Finn.

Suddenly Luke recalled Ben’s vision; only this time it was his vision, too.

_Fiery red lightning flashes in the blackness; it’s joined by blue, and then yellow. Energy crackles, then explodes as the three swirl together; spinning faster and faster, blending; becoming one..._

 

“*What*?”

Dar Noaa was standing in front of him; he’d finished correcting Finn and come back to join Luke. The challenging tone of the question suggested the Sith thought Luke’s empty stare was criticism.

“Nothing,” Luke replied, “I was distracted for a moment.”

“Oh.”

That was all that was said; Dar Noaa returned to his original place beside Luke and they resumed watching.

 

Finn was happy; the training session was going extremely well.

And Rey was such a good teacher, too; Finn didn’t know how she did it, but everything she showed him seemed so easily absorbed that he learned without effort. Engaging in a little bit of sparring made him uneasy at first, but as it progressed, he found that his new knowledge was readily available, as if he’d been using it for years. With every passing minute, he grew more confident, more assertive. Rey sensed it and responded by becoming more aggressive, her blows became stronger; Finn had to tighten his grasp on the lightsaber to keep her from knocking it out of his hand.

The pressure of his fingers on the hilt made them ache, just as it had in the forest that night when he faced Kylo Ren. The memory sent a pulse of anger through him, and he returned her blow so forcefully that he actually forced her backwards with it. She staggered to regain her balance and started back toward him, raising her lightsaber to deliver another blow and Finn raised his to strike back.

Suddenly she stopped, her arms dropped to her side, leaving her exposed. Finn was already in motion, though; he couldn’t stop in time to avoid striking her.

“Rey!” he shouted desperately.

But Rey wasn’t listening.

 

His message arrived like a winter sandstorm; it was a blinding wall of emotion that swept over her, blocking everything else out. He was in trouble; he was was *afraid*. He’d tried to hide it from her, but she knew him too well.

_**Palpatine. I think I’m about to meet him.** _

_**There’s something wrong with the Holonet.** _

Beneath it, Rey heard him say _“I’ve never been more terrified than I am right now”._

Time stopped; she didn’t even breathe. She had no idea that Finn’s lightsaber blade was coming at her; that his face was filled with terror of a different kind.

 

Just when the horror of what was happening became too much for Finn, invisible hands grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled back; his blade swept clear, missing Rey’s face by millimeters. Then the hands released him, letting him drop backwards to the ground; a painful landing, but a huge relief. Pushing himself up to a sitting position, Finn saw Luke and Dar Noaa rushing forward, but their attention was on Rey and not him. His back screamed in protest as he got to his feet and followed.

 As soon as Luke reached Rey, he put a hand to her face and touched her gently; she recovered with a sudden gasp of breath and looked at him with desperation in her eyes.

“He *knows*!” she said.

“Tell me,” Luke commanded, “exactly what he said.”

“He said ‘Palpatine; I think I’m going to meet him’,” Rey recited, “and then he said ‘there’s something wrong with the Holonet'.”

Luke turned and looked at Dar Noaa. The expression on the Sith’s face was disturbing; he looked stricken, as if he’d just realized something truly awesome, almost beyond his ability to believe.

“I have to check something,” Dar Noaa was staring at his own outspread fingers as he spoke, already considering possibilities. “I’ll be back.”

Then he left, walking quickly back to the Visitor and the files he’d stolen.

Luke turned back to Rey.

“Was there anything else?”

“No”, Rey answered, “but he’s so… *afraid*. More afraid than he’s ever been...”

“Who’s afraid?”

Rey froze; it wasn’t Master Luke asking; it was *Finn*! She’d forgotten he was there; he’d heard every word!

She didn’t know what to say, how to tell him.

She looked from Finn to Master Luke, pleading silently for his help, but the Jedi master's eyes offered her only kind resolve, encouraging her to answer him. This moment was inevitable; sooner or later Finn would have learned about Ren; the hurt and outrage he would feel was as unavoidable as it was justified. He was going to hate her; she was about to lose this precious friend - but that was part of the price she would pay for loving a Skywalker.

She took a breath, and looked into Finn’s eyes as she answered his question; two words that would change everything.

“Kylo Ren.”

 

..............


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter, late due to a surreal experience working at the polls followed by a surprise visit from the virus that's making the rounds here.

-28-

 

_This was the place where dreams came true._

_The pink sand between his toes was hot; so was the breeze coming from the water; but he was almost to the shade now. This place was one continuous celebration; the drinks were strong; the food was rich and a bit too salty; there was plenty to drink, plenty to eat; luxury everywhere._

_And everywhere, beings of astonishing beauty, every one of which would look at him and want him..._

_He didn’t know when or how or why, but sometimes when he was on his own in a crowd, they would all show this strange attraction to him; some would even act on it. When they did, he would retreat to some shadowy corner and try to wait it out. He also had a well-practiced speech that would politely, but firmly, say “no”, so when one particularly interesting being approached and leaned over to whisper in his ear, he was already rehearsing it._

_“Time to wake up, Poe Dameron,”_ the being said, _“he needs you.”_

 

He opened his eyes; he was in his favorite place, the pilot seat, in the cockpit – exactly where he’d put himself a few hours earlier.

But he was not alone, Dar Noaa was there, too.

The Sith was at the waveform, already involved in something and either oblivious or indifferent to Poe’s presence there. A holographic display was building, but Dar Noaa was impatient and had his face almost inside the image as if that could give him insight.

Poe knew better than to speak up, so he closed his eyes and tried to get back to his dream, but a few minutes later, he was jolted wide awake again by loud, garbled sounds of an argument starting.

Dar Noaa and somebody...

Dar Noaa was standing where he was before; arms crossed, he was glaring through the display at the waveform behind it. It looked like he was waiting for a reply, so Poe looked around to see who the somebody was, but saw no one.

Then Dar Noaa spoke again - in *Sith*. He was speaking so fast, Poe had no hope of understanding; but clearly Dar Noaa was very angry.

Poe listened for a reply.

It came from Viz.

The ship’s mechanical voice replied, also in Sith, but it wasn’t mimicking Dar Noaa; Poe didn’t recognize the voice that the ship was using. And it wasn’t merely reporting; it sounded as if Viz was arguing back. The reply was calm but not neutral, and although it conveyed no hostility, it was definitely negative in tone. Dar Noaa’s response confirmed that; the Sith shouted something that Poe was sure was profanity; then he slammed his fist against the waveform so hard that Poe thought he saw the surface there deform, then bounce back; the displays flickered wildly for a second, then stabilized.

Then silence.

Not moving, hardly daring to breathe, Poe waited; personal experience with Force-sensitives told him to Just. Stay. Out. of. It.

Finally Viz broke the silence; its voice was calm, but there was something mildly threatening in its tone. Dar Noaa snorted in frustration, but pulled his hand off the waveform, then he clasped both hands behind his back. The gesture seemed to pacify Viz and the ship resumed its report, presenting a swiftly changing stream of images that were meaningless to Poe, but had Dar Noaa’s complete attention.

Seeing that the two of them were totally engaged; Poe relaxed and looked around.

Dar Na was standing back at the entry; certainly roused from sleep by the noise. He and Poe exchanged a quick acknowledgement, then Dar Na caught enough of the “conversation” taking place to realize what was happening, and since he could understand what was being said, he instantly became its audience.

Now Poe had a translator of sorts; Dar Na’s face.

 

……………..

 

Not far away, outside, three beings were standing on the rapidly-heating sand.

Luke stepped back, giving Rey and Finn space, but not privacy. They were young adults to the galaxy, but to the Force, they were newborns; neither of them understood their own power; how easily they could invoke it, and how irreversible and unforgiving it could be. Luke could feel it; the Dark Side was already whispering in their heads, and nothing could unleash the Dark Side in a being faster than anger.

So Luke remained close-by; he wasn’t interfering, though; beyond preventing them from unintentionally harming one another, he would take no part.

“Kylo Ren?” Finn asked. “Did I just hear you say Kylo Ren?”

“Yes,” Rey replied.

“Kylo Ren is... *afraid*?”

“Yes.”

“How would you know?”

“I can… “ Rey searched for words, but found few. “… he can… we can... hear… each other.”

“What?”

“Messages between us.”

“How?” Finn replied, “More importantly – *why*?”

“The Force is how; Ren and I are both strong with it, we ...”

“*Ren*...” Finn paused; he stared at her for much too long. “… *and* ... *you*?”

“Yes.”

And there it was; so few words that said so much. It was a relief; the terrible weight that Rey had been carrying vanished, taking the crippling fear with it.

Finn made no reply; his expression spoke for him.

“I know how you feel,” Rey could look him in the eyes now, “I felt the same way, at first; but then I got to *know* him, and …”

“Got to *know* him?” Finn’s fists were aching with rage, he clenched them tighter as he fought the urge to lash out and strike her. “You got to *know* him? After what he did to you? After what he did to me? After what he did to *Solo*?”

“Yes,” She replied, still clinging to hope that he might listen, “and I found out that nothing is what  _I_ thought it was, Finn; not him, not me - not even you.”

“He’s a monster!” Finn reminded her. “You said so yourself, and you were *right*! You know it! I know it! That's all we need to know about him; it’s all *anyone* needs to know!”

Rey didn’t reply; a surprising calm settled over her; she could feel the fury rising inside him, but there was nothing to be done about that; his anger was justified and she would stand here and bear it.

He deserved nothing less.

 

……….

 

Inside the Visitor, the argument had escalated; the ship was calm, but the Sith was not, and Poe was getting worried. He was no Force-sensitive, but he knew the Force well; it had been in his life in one way or another as long as he could remember, so he was sensitive to It; subtle changes in the Force that others failed to notice never escaped him. There were a few times when he suspected that his connection went beyond just the experience of long-term exposure, but he refused to consider the idea because he’d seen what the Force demanded of a Jedi and he knew he couldn't walk that path.

Instead, Poe was content to remain on the periphery, close to the flow and occasionally part of it, but even then, always on his own terms.

This was not one of those times.

He was feeling a tiny tremor coming up through the pilot seat; it was barely there, but Poe was sure it was a sign of Dar Noaa’s anger manifesting itself through the Force. It was possible, even likely, that this argument was about to become physical. Poe had witnessed Viz defending itself before, but that time, Dar Noaa had been caught completely off guard. As for the Sith, Poe knew the first time he saw Dar Noaa that he was more than met the eye; Poe also knew that a Sith’s life was usually short and violent; so an old Sith meant a powerful Sith.

Just how powerful Dar Noaa might be was something Poe had no desire to find out.

He tried gesturing to Dar Na to step up and calm things down, but got waved off. The older Sith’s anger seemed to have the younger one enthralled; Dar Na was hanging on every word and his eyes were already glowing. Poe couldn’t see Dar Noaa’s eyes, but he could feel them; any time now, they would flare and something bad would happen.

He was just about to make a run for the entry when General Organa arrived.

The General looked as if she’d been startled awake and thrown on the first items of clothing she saw; Poe recognized the simple shirt she was wearing as Dar Noaa’s. She walked up behind the Sith and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Noah.”

His reaction was instant; it was if she’d flipped a switch and turned him off. He let his hands drop to his sides, lowered his head and spent his rage in a howl of frustration.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“This vessel,” he turned his head slightly as he answered, but didn’t look at her, “has been *deceiving* me.”

“About what?”

“The great machine; the one that spans the galaxy,” he was staring at her reflection on the idle waveform, “it’s the Holonet.”

“The Holonet? How?”

“Thanks to the First Order and some self-serving idiots in the Republic, the entire system has been re-purposed; Kyber crystals, countless billions of them, inserted into every link everywhere. They are not there to improve transmission, they are there to focus and channel the Force.”

“Why?”

“To physically transfer it to a single point in space.”

But you said such a machine would have to span the entire galaxy, and the Holonet doesn’t.”

“It does *now*, “Dar Noaa growled ominously,"The First Order just completed their version of it throughout the Unknown Regions and Wildspace; they boasted that now they touch the Edge. With both systems threaded throughout the galaxy, all one would need is a means to link the two together and a powerful Force-sensitive to direct the flow, and you have the great machine.”

He paused for a second, then turned around to face her.

“Would you care,” he asked, “to speculate on who that Force-sensitive might be?”

“Palpatine.”

“I must talk to Luke,” he put his hand to her face and traced it gently with his fingers, “I will be back.”

The he moved past her, heading quickly toward the entry; Dar Na fell into step behind him and then Poe slipped past Leia and followed them, leaving her alone in the cockpit. But not totally alone; she put her hand on the waveform and activated it.

“Explain,” she looked at the green glow before her, “why Dar Noaa is angry.”

“He misunderstands,” Leia heard her own voice coming back at her. “No deception was intended; it was necessary to withhold certain data to protect the source.”

“What is the source?”

“Not what, but who,” Viz replied. “I am Kourin.”

“You were built by the Kourin; we know that.”

“No – I *am* Kourin. We are one mind.”

“Collective intelligence?”

“That term could apply.”

“What did you withhold from Dar Noaa?”

“He asked about the source many times,” Viz answered, “but I did not reveal us. We are captive, scattered throughout First Order space; we risk extinction to bring them down. We concealed ourself from Dar Noaa so that if at any point, our venture failed, he could not expose us.”

“And then you manipulated him."”

“We *influenced* him.” Viz sounded almost defensive . “We believed he was the right choice for our purposes; and he has not disappointed us.”

“What are your purposes?”

“Our intent was to incapacitate the First Order,” The ship said. “They destroyed our world and enslaved us; they wanted our technology, so we gave it to them. They used us everywhere and so now we *are* everywhere.”

A holographic display of the galaxy appeared, then sparkled like fireworks as uncounted billions of Nourin-influenced devices were highlighted, revealing the unbelievable scale of the Kourin's activity. After giving Leia a minute to absorb what she was seeing,Viz continued to explain.

“When we designed the modifications to your Holonet, we sought only to use it against the First Order; then we discovered that another source intended to use our technology against the galaxy itself.”

Leia felt a horrible chill deep inside.

“Palpatine,” she whispered.

“We sabotaged what we could,” The ship’s voice changed, taking an aggressive tone. “We have slowed his progress, but we have been unable to stop him. Soon he will try to execute hism plan; if he succeeds, *annihilation*… and even if he fails, there will be devastation beyond repair.” The display began to show a simulation of probable outcomes for the galaxy, adding degrees of progressive devastation until finally, came total annihilation, the Void. “We feared all was lost until your Republic sent the Sith to steal this vessel.”

“What do you want from us?”

“Survival.”

 

……….

 

As soon as he emerged from the ship, Poe saw that he’d missed something; Luke Skywalker and Rey were standing together, looking in the same direction, and when Poe followed their lead, he saw Finn walking away, very fast, toward the mouth of the ravine. Dar Noaa and Dar Na were headed straight to Luke, but Poe decided to follow Finn. His friend was already a good distance ahead, so Poe had to trot, then run, to catch up.

 

Just as he was about to walk out onto the Goazon, Finn heard footsteps coming from behind; he stopped and whirled about, lightsaber in his hand, ready to fight.

“Steady,” Poe raised his hands, “It’s just me!”

Finn looked past Poe, saw no one else was coming, and relaxed a little.

“Sorry.”

“You look like you’re ready to kill someone.”

“I am.”

"Not me, though."

"No, not you."

“What’s going on?”

“Rey,” Finn replied; saying her name was physically painful. “She… she’s been with *Kylo Ren*.”

“I know.”

“No, I mean she’s been *with* him!”

“Oh… “ Poe looked surprised. “No wonder she didn’t want to talk about it. She told you what happened?”

“Only that she 'got to know him'.”

“Well, that doesn’t necessarily mean that…”

“Yes it *does*!” Finn cut him off loudly; the Goazon responded with faint echoes of his voice. “I could see it in her eyes; she… she *cares* for him.”

“Oh.”

“How could she *care* for him?” Finn shouted the question, letting the echo feed his rage. “I risked *everything* to save her! I fought; I fought *him* - to save her! Everyone said I did save her - from *him*! And after all that, she stands there and says she ‘got to know’ him…” He paused to take a breath, the rage was exhausting. “… as if that changes anything!”

“Finn,” Poe said calmly, “what you’re feeling right now; it’s what I told you about...”

“When I met Rey, I thought if I’d ever had a sister,” Finn said mournfully, “ I’d have wanted her to be just like Rey. Just like *her*...”

“Sister?” Poe sounded surprised; and relieved.

“I fought for her,” Finn felt empty; drained. “I trusted her. But she’s a...”

“Traitor?”

Poe’s question hit him hard; Finn’s entire existence was about loyalty; complete and total, unquestioning loyalty; the First Order required it of him, but he’d given it freely to Rey. That was, of course, after he’d walked away from her and Solo - and the Resistance - on Takodana. On that day, all he wanted to do was run as far away from it all as he could, and he would have done exactly that if Kylo Ren hadn't shown up.

There was something disturbing about that; ever since Jakku, everything that happened somehow connected back to Ren and that moment when Finn felt the Kylo’s gaze on him; when he felt…

_The Force!_

He didn’t know the Force then.

And until now, he only remembered his fear; not the sensation of being being invaded, examined, and then judged. Then Ren lost interest and walked away, leaving him frozen in terror and thinking only one thing.

_Get off the ship or you’re dead._

Those words, only those words, over and over - and over - again.

It was those words in his head that set things in motion; those words that drove him to rescue and escape with Poe; to meet Rey and then, Han Solo; and then when it truly mattered, to come back and fight. Because of those words, Finn helped destroy the Starkiller and find Luke Skywalker; because of those words, he was free.

 _Those words…_ Finn thought _… the monster put them in my head._

_Why?_

 

…..

 

Far away, in the Couruscant system; the Kylo of Ren was being escorted through the tunnels by a blue uniform that seemed utterly unimpressed with him. Ren was getting used to the helmet again; it was similar enough to the one he’d left behind he that he could hide in it. So far, Snoke had shown no signs that he could sense anything beyond what Ren was presenting to him, which was good; Supreme Leader didn’t know or didn’t care.

Or both.

Either condition was good for Ren; both would be better.

The helmet was confining, but it was also concealing, and Ren needed that desperately. He was an emotional mess; horror and rage were boiling inside him; the Kylo of Ren was barely maintaining control of himself. He remembered how impossible it was for Ben Solo to hide his emotions, so he had good reason to fear that his face would betray him at the first opportunity. And every step closer to his destination made it worse; the only thing keeping him from turning and running away in terror was the feeling that whatever was going to happen right-here-right-now had to happen.

He *knew* it.

He didn’t know what he knew, or why he knew it; he just did; it was one more miserable "gift" that the Force used to torture him. This was like that night on Jakku, when he witnessed an Awakening and chose to let FN2187 live because he knew without knowing that FN2187 was supposed to live.

_Get off the ship or you’re dead._

So few words that caused so much damage; letting FN2187 live resulted in disaster for Ren; it cost him his illusion of contentment; his status, his ambition, his Knights - all were gone.

And his father, too.

The traitor bore no responsibility for it, though; he was just the catalyst…

Blue uniform came to a stop at a large and elegant set of doors that silently glided open for him; he leaned inside slightly, moved his head as if looking for someone and then sighting them, then stepped inside, immediately turned right and walked out of sight. Ren quickly followed him, because showing hesitation now would be like showing his face.

It was long, solemn chamber; dimly lit and devoid of any furnishings, the room’s only feature was a huge viewing port in the far wall through which the richness of the Inner Core could be seen in all its blazing glory. A lone silhouette stood out against the glow like a shadow; but unlike a shadow, it was no illusion.

Blue uniform stopped, gestured to Ren to remain where he was, and left.

A long silence followed.

Ren was used to waiting; he filled the time with silent recitation of the Code, repeating the words, building a wall of mindless rote to hide behind. He was starting a third round of it when he suddenly felt a horrible chill deep inside, followed by a voice as cold and ethereal as the emptiness of space, saying words that confirmed his fears.

“I knew your grandfather.”

 

……..


	29. Chapter 29

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short chapter this time, because of the holiday; but not an unimportant one, I think.

-29-

 

“ **I knew your grandfather.”**

_Four words. Only four, and he is mine already. Foolish child, as if he could stand against me._

_And yet…_

“You knew my grandfather?” Ren asked. “*Really* knew him?”

“I did indeed,” the shadowy figure replied, “There is no one who knew him better than I.”

In his entire life, Ren had never heard those words spoken; not even Snoke ever claimed having a personal relationship with Darth Vader. Ren’s knowledge of his grandfather was limited to history records, a few vague comments overheard when he was young, the ceaseless lectures from Snoke about Darth Vader’s rise to glory and then fall, and bizarre recurring dreams that came from too much medication.

His mother and uncle told him nothing at all; neither did the Knights.

Now Ren was standing in the presence of someone who knew the answers to all the questions that went unanswered for so long, he couldn’t help it; the urge to ask was so strong...

“You,” the shadow being read his thoughts,“*need* to know everything about him; I can feel it.” The shadow turned and looked at Ren, revealing a thin body shrouded by a heavy cloak. Its head was still hidden in deep shadow inside the hood, but in the blackness there, two eyes glowed like yellow stars. “You may approach me, Kylo Ren.”

Ren stepped forward to get his first look; his fear tempered by intense curiosity, he made no attempt to hide either. Illuminated now by the glow coming through the observation window behind him; the shadow being’s face was dry; its skin, tight and translucent like stretched parchment, was a map of withered muscle on bone laced with blood vessels that pulsed slowly to the beat of an ancient heart.

And those eyes; glowing yellow, cold and utterly devoid of any trace of emotion, were staring deep into him.

“You *know* me,” the shadow being said.

“Yes,” Ren answered. “You are Sheev Palpatine.”

“That name,” Palpatine replied, “no longer matters. Does my appearance disturb you?”

“No.”

“Good,” the shrouded head nodded its approval. “You control your fear; you are stronger than I expected; stronger than Snoke led me to believe.”

“How should I address you?”

“Call me ‘Master’, like your grandfather did,” the head and those glowing eyes leaned forward. “He would say ‘yes, my master’… will you do the same?”

“Yes... my master,” Ren replied, “if you wish it.”

He felt the intrusion into his mind; it was barely perceptible, moving through his thoughts like a serpent in tall grass. But Ren was ready for it; everywhere the presence explored, it eventually encountered a wall of recitation; the mindless drone of the Code turned it away. But the Code would not protect him for long, so Ren offered a distraction.

 _Anakin Skywalker,_ he thought, _Darth Vader. My *birthright*…_

“Anakin Skywalker!” Palpatine almost sang the name out. “How long since I’ve heard that name...” He fell silent for a moment, distracted, as if remembering something; abandoning his invasion of Ren’s mind. Then Palpatine raised his arms, extending them out, beckoning to Ren to come closer with dessicated hands. “You want to know the *truth* about him; you need to know it. I shall tell you the things your family could not; I shall tell you the things they *would* not tell you. “

Ignoring the icy cold that coursed through his body, Ren came closer; close enough to detect the faint odor of death.

“Tell me... my master.”

 

 ……….

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, there was activity inside the Millennium Falcon.

Maz Katana was awake; she was sitting up, quietly accepting the spoonfuls of warm broth that Chewbacca was offering. Letting him feed her was nourishment for them both; this morning she actually felt a bit stronger and even hungry, and the Wookie’s spirits rose with each spoonful he shoved into her mouth. Neither of them was suffering from false hope, though; they were simply making the most of the time they had left.

“You’ve been quiet since we arrived here,” Maz said between spoonfuls. “Your thoughts are troubled.”

Chewbacca mewed softly, and put another spoonful to her lips.

“Don’t tell me that,” Maz pulled backed away from it, “I know you too well.”

The Wookie put the spoon back into the bowl and stared down at it; Maz leaned forward and touched his hand.

“I know what you want to do,” she said. “You know that Han would *never* want that.”

“What I want,” Chewbacca growled, “is justice.”

“You want revenge.”

“I want *both*,” Chewbacca snorted angrily.

“What you really want, dear one, is absolution.”

Chewbacca yanked his hand from under hers as if it had burned; he stared at it for a second, but then looked at Maz; his eyes filled with guilt.

“You blame yourself for Han’s death,” Maz said. “You saw the danger, but you didn’t stop him; you couldn’t stop him. Part of you didn’t want to stop him; because despite your fears, you wanted the boy back, too. And when your fears became reality, you took the shot – and you *missed*. Had your aim been true, you could have told yourself that it was reflex; that you acted on instinct and passion in the moment... but you missed.”

Chewbacca groaned as if the words were physically painful; Maz sighed, but continued the lesson.

“Since that day, you’ve tortured yourself with that shot, reliving it over and over again, wishing you could change it, wishing for a second chance; but you know, when it comes, that the second chance will be no such thing - it will be *choice*. You tell yourself that you’ll be doing it for Han, but you know in your heart that’s a lie; you’ll be doing it for yourself.” She reached for his hand and grasped it tightly. “You want to kill the child, Han’s child, the one he *died* trying to save; can’t you see the madness of it? And it won’t solve anything; all you will do is trade the guilt of missing that first shot for the guilt of *not* missing the second shot.”

Chewbacca responded with a sound for which there was no translation, and Maz exhaled in resignation.

“At least, tell me,” she pleaded, “that you will think about what I just said.”

The sounds of footsteps coming from the entry prevented any further discussion between them; Maz and Chewbacca turned to see Luke Skywalker enter, with Dar Noaa right behind him. Luke walked directly to where they were sitting.

“Maz,” he said, “I have a question.”

“Ask,” Maz replied, “If I know the answer, I will tell you.”

“Can Darth Sidius fold space?”

“Believes it, he does,” Maz’s voice, but not her words. “Soon he will attempt it.”

“But can he actually do it?”

“That, no one can say for sure; not even Sidius.”

The Jedi and the Sith looked at one another but neither of them said anything; their faces spoke for them.

“Can we stop him?” Luke asked.

“*You* can.”

“How?” Dar Noaa asked.

Maz jerked her head and stared at him for a second, then returned her attention to Luke.

“Send the Sith away,” she said.

Luke gave Dar Noaa a side glance, silently requesting that he not take issue with it; Dar Noaa raised his hands in submission and walked out. Luke waited until he heard the entry closing behind him before turning back to Maz.

“He’s gone,” Luke said, “What is it you want to say that made that necessary?”

“Time to speak of the past,” Maz answered; with every word, she sounded more like Yoda and Luke could almost see the Jedi Master's face in place of hers, “of that which you told no one, not even your sister.”

“I’ve kept many things to myself for many years; which would you speak of?”

“Your father’s words,” closing her eyes, Maz reached out with the Force, “what he told you after he took your hand...”

_Instantly, Luke found himself injured and hanging on desperately,using his left hand to hold on and his useless right arm tucked under it._

“ _I am your father.”_

_Luke screamed back in defiance and denial, but he knew it was true._

**“ _Luke, you can *destroy* the emperor; he has foreseen it. It is your destiny.”_**

Then, just as instantly, Luke was back with Maz and Chewbacca. Maz’s eyes were still closed, as if she was still in the past, looking at something lost back there. And there was much to look at; his hand, his lightsaber, his illusions. That was the darkest hour of his life, and although he judged those words as manipulation by an ambitious and evil being, he had never forgotten them.

Maz opened her eyes.

“Your father was *right*,” she said, “Palpatine; Darth Sidius; a creature so powerful that he fears nothing in the galaxy – except *you*. Even when you thought him dead and forgot about him; he feared you. And then, when so close to achieving absolute power, he still feared you so much that he turned your sister’s child to the Dark Side, to use him, to destroy you.”

“Me," Luke felt guilt and rage boiling up inside him. “Ben? Leia? All the suffering, the pain… it was all about *me*."

“Fears you that much, he does,” Maz rubbed her hands as if they were cold. “Fears that you are his destiny; that you, *only* you, can destroy him now. That fear is the weapon you can defeat him with.”

“I must face him.”

“Yes.”

 

………..

 

In another part of the galaxy, the terrible, tragic story of Anakin Skywalker was coming to an end.

“… and after he sliced off Anakin’s legs, Obi Wan Kenobi took his ‘beloved’ apprentice’s lightsaber for himself and walked away, leaving your grandfather behind, on fire... burning alive...”

Ren was silent.

“… and that was how *I* found him.” Palpatine wasn’t anywhere near finished; the story was a slow poison that needed time to take effect. “It was I that saved him; it was I that healed him and then it was I that gave him a new vision for the galaxy... and it was I that gave him the name Darth Vader.”

Ren said nothing.

“So, despite Obi Wan's treachery, Darth Vader *lived*,” Palpatine spun the final threads in his web, “but for him, there was no justice; only betrayal.” He paused to let the words do their work, then sighed sadly. “Obi Wan Kenobi stole his children; Vader believed they died with their mother; and when he finally discovered the truth, those children were grown. Raised under deceit and lies, his children hated and feared him; but he showed them mercy nonetheless.”

Ren reacted with a low growl, but nothing more.

This was a part of the story he actually knew about because he’d spent uncounted hours searching through the Archives of the Empire for anything related to his grandfather. And among those archives, Ren found a ship’s log that recorded the true nature of Darth Vader’s ‘mercy’, right down to the drugs used to interrogate Ren's mother. Palpatine’s version of events had an accent of manipulation, but Ren couldn’t risk questioning any of the details.

“And then,” Palpatine continued; he had even more poison to add, “after your grandfather sacrificed everything for their sake, they 'honored' his memory by naming you after the Jedi who betrayed him...” he paused again, this time for the drama of it, “… Obi Wan Kenobi… *Ben* Kenobi.”

“That name means nothing to me.”

Fortunately for Ren, that was true; he knew little about Ben Kenobi and cared even less. As for the naming, Ren knew that whoever he was now, he was no longer Ben Solo; and that was all Palpatine would get out of his head.

“Good,” Palpatine replied. “When I learned of your existence; I vowed that I would not allow the Jedi to corrupt you as they did your mother and uncle. Since before you were born, you have been under my protection.”

“Supreme Leader Snoke,” Ren answered, “said that *he* was my protector.”

“Snoke,” there was a tinge of contempt in Palpatine’s voice as he said the name, “was my agent of care for you.”

“Your agent of care tried to kill me.”

“I am aware of that,” Palpatine replied. “Like so many others who have served me, Snoke proved to be a disappointment; he was short-sighted and selfish. His lack of vision cost us the girl; harvested properly, she would have yielded so much.”

_The girl._

For a few seconds, Ren was caught in an explosion of memories; when he went to Ahch’tu to get the girl, his only intention was to bring back her to Snoke; and if it hadn’t been for Snoke betraying him there, he would have done precisely that.

_I’m a monster._

He felt guilt and shame – and then fear! Palpatine was looking at him; reading him…

“You’re *afraid*, Kylo Ren,” Palpatine said. “Why?”

“I am afraid,” Thinking fast, Ren realized that he had an answer that just might work because it was the truth; Palpatine would sense the truth in it; there was no need to go into detail. He was inviting death, but it would be worth it to protect her. “It was *I* that cost you the girl.”

“That is true,” Palpatine nodded slightly, “But you only acted because Snoke acted against you first, so I can excuse it. And you rid me of Luke Skywalker.”

Ren was astonished by the words.

_He doesn’t know…_

“I cannot verify that,” Ren worked the problem; here was another truth that he could hide behind. “My Knights and I were attacked too quickly; we had no time to...”

“It was verified by General Hux,” Palpatine said. “He witnessed it from the landing site below. He wasn’t sure what he’d seen, but from his description, I am.”

“I was injured, I don’t remember...”

“Force lightning,” Palpatine said the words with relish, “is well known to me, Kylo Ren. It is as painful as it is powerful; only the strongest can summon it and survive.”

Ren didn’t know if that was praise or a preface to something terrible, but it didn’t matter.

“I remember the pain,” he said quietly, adding another layer of truth. “And the color.”

“Yes, the color...”

“It was red.”

“Yes, red. A color without precedent; there is no record it ever being manifested before,” For once, Palpatine sounded uncertain, unsure of himself, as if the mystery posed a threat.“It is unique to you.”

“I wouldn’t know.”

Sounds from the far end of the chamber caught Palpatine’s attention and, much to Ren’s relief, those piercing yellow eyes left him to look. A shaft of light indicated the doors were opening, and then a shadow moved through it, floating, not walking.

Snoke.

“Master,” he called out as he approached on his little throne, “Preparations are complete; we are ready for activation at your command.”

Ren sensed contempt; Snoke’s words, perhaps even his presence alone, invoked something dark and deadly in Palpatine. Supreme Leader seemed utterly unaware of it, though, and sped forward to join them.

“Master...”

“*Wait*.” Palpatine cut him off abruptly, then those eyes fell back on Ren. “You may leave us now, Kylo Ren.”

“Yes, my master.”

Ren bowed slightly, then turned and walked away from the two with measured steps; an illusion of disinterested obedience. By the time he reached the open doors and stepped though, Palpatine and Snoke were already engaged in discussing the details of whatever and no longer looking his way.

The sound of the doors sealing behind him felt nothing short of miraculous; Ren’s veneer of rigid control weakened and he almost fainted. He caught himself after a few staggered steps, took a few seconds to catch his breath and center himself again, then started down the tunnel that would take him…

… back.

It was that simple; Palpatine *told* him he could leave – so he would.

And he was ready, absolutely determined, to leave, because the entire time he was standing there in the presence of absolute power himself, there was something deep inside him protecting him from the pull to the Dark.

**“ _Come back to me.”_**

Four words. Only four, but he was already hers.

The promise he never made to her was one he would keep; he would come back to her; he’d stand in front of her and look into her eyes and tell her...

But first, he had to get out of here.

 

……….

 


	30. Chapter 30

-30-

 

Dar Noaa was waiting.

It was not the first time he’d been tossed out of someplace because he was Sith; that was a regular feature of his life inside the Republic. Most of the time, it happened in Acquisitions and Analysis briefings, right after he expressed his opinion on some aspect of their plans.

This time he didn’t even get that far; Maz Katana put him out at the first question. He left without protest because he owed her for helping him contact Luke Skywalker, but standing outside the Millennium Falcon while something of truly galactic importance was being discussed was unbearable because they were talking about folding space.

_Folding space..._

The concept of “folding space”, to physically move from one place to another anywhere in space instantly, had been kicked around the galaxy for a very long time. Passed down through countless generations, it was the basis of myths and and adventure stories that fired up young imaginations and resulted in recurring epochs of serious scientific research into the possibility that teleportation in one form or another could be achieved.

_Folding space..._

Many technological advances came out of all that effort and civilizations throughout the galaxy advanced, but the ability to “fold space” eluded everybeing who pursued it. There were a few old tales of Force-sensitives who claimed the ability then vanished in the act of trying, never to be seen again, but for the most part, those who pursued the ability eventually gave up and abandoned the quest.

 _Except, apparently,_ Dar Noaa thought, _Darth Sidius..._

It turned out that folding space was simply much too complicated; space-time was always in motion and tended towards entropy, making it highly likely that once anybeing actually folded space, the spot the being was trying to teleport itself to wouldn’t be there anymore; which meant that any Force-sensitive with the ability to fold space would have to resort to technology to navigate the space that was being folded, even though the trip was instantaneous.

_The future is always in motion, even when it’s infinitely small…_

That was one thing that Sith and Jedi alike agreed on; it was also where Dar Noaa found real physics and metaphysics merged, becoming neither and both simultaneously. He was aware of experiments that “linked” a particle here with a particle there, but those did little more than demonstrate possibility; once probability was applied, things quickly became so complicated that no being truly understood what was happening – or even if it was happening at all.

_If Darth Sidius can fold space..._

Dar Noaa was only speculating when he said it to Luke; if the Holonet was the great machine that could suck up the Force and send it somewhere, possibly to that new dark entity in the Hosnian system, and if Sidius could fold space, he would teleport himself into it and then… what? Dar Noaa had no ideas on that, but he did have an idea of what would happen once the Force fell below a critical minimum.

 _Space-time_ _ends;_ _with nothing to bind it, matter_ _breaks apart_ _…_

He tried to see it in his mind, but it was an event without sequence; everything everywhere vanished from existence instantly.

_The Void._

Right now, Luke Skywalker was inside the Falcon being told how to stop it, and all Dar Noaa could do was wait.

 

…...

 

In another part of the galaxy, inside Starlight One, the Kylo of Ren was exploring.

He’d been walking the tunnels since Palpatine dismissed him from his presence, learning its layout, noting surveillance sensor locations and ‘cold’ spots that might mark concealed entries, anything that might hinder his escape. He had a point of reference to work with; the huge cache of Kyber crystals he’d been sensing since his arrival told him which direction would eventually take him back to the Transport. If he made it that far, he figured the rest would be relatively easy, but before Ren would make his run, there was something he wanted to do.

He wanted to find Hux.

In order to do that, he was going to need assistance, so he turned his attention to locating somebody who knew where the Medical Department was located. Two tunnels and three turns later, he arrived at a lift and took a ride, first down and then up, and then down again.

The third ride paid off; only seconds into it, the lift stopped and opened its door to admit a black uniform, who paused briefly to inspect Ren but showed no interest at all, then entered and turned around to stand beside him.

“Security,” black uniform said dully; not raising an alarm, just directing the lift to his destination. Ren turned his head and looked down at him; black uniform gave him a side glance, then made the mistake of following his eyes with his head, turning to confront him.

The lift door closed. When it opened again, its two occupants stepped out together.

“It’s *that* way,” black uniform pointed ahead, “down this tunnel, turn left and then midway through the next; on the right. They’re all at midshift break now, though, up in food service, stuffing their faces. The food here is terrible...”

“You can go now,” Ren said.

Black uniform gave him a half-salute, turned and went back into the lift, said ‘security’ loudly, and the lift door closed to take him back to his own reality. He’d been very helpful; Ren paused just long enough to check his bearings, then moved on, following black uniform’s directions, which he knew were correct because he could feel it - not far away, getting closer with every step, Ren heard silent screams of pain and terror.

_Hux._

 

……….

 

In another part of the galaxy, back on Jakku, the ravine was beginning to feel the power of relentless sunlight; with no clouds and no moisture to defend it, the ground and rocky slopes were heating rapidly, making the air dry and irritating to breathe.

Dar Noaa was still waiting.

His thoughts were becoming dark and the idea that soon the galaxy might become the Void resulted in frustration and then anger; it was totally unacceptable for the galaxy to end this way.

_I should be in there, hearing what Luke is hearing. I could… wait…_

_Finn…_

_Rage._

It was coming from the direction he’d walked before with Luke, where the ravine met the Goazon, and it was so strong that Dar Noaa forgot about the Void and the end of everything - poor young Finn was in terrible distress. Deeply concerned, he started walking to search for Finn, but after only a few meters, he caught sight of him. Finn was on his way back and Poe was with him; Finn looked upset but unharmed, so Dar Noaa was immediately relieved and then annoyed.

_Young fool is broadcasting himself to the entire galaxy! I must teach him Force discretion…_

Then, from another direction, high above, on the ridge, another broadcast; but unlike Finn’s, this one was deliberate.

_Rey..._

She was touching the Force, calling to someone; it was powerful, but private.

_I must ask Luke…_

“Ask me what?”

Startled, Dar Noaa spun around and saw Luke standing there. Dar Noaa had been distracted by the young ones, but that should not have kept him from sensing the presence of someone as powerful as the Jedi Master.

“Luke!” The statement was the start of the question. “I didn’t...”

“No, you didn’t,” Luke replied. “What was your question?”

“Have the young ones had a disagreement?” Dar Noaa asked, then quickly added, “and what did Maz Katana say?”

“They’ll get past it,” Luke scanned the area without looking, easily locating two young Force-sensitives and one Familiar. “They’ll have to.”

“The girl is calling to someone,” Dar Noaa looked up toward the ridge, “Is it Leia’s son?”

“Yes.”

“That is… interesting,” Dar Noaa noted it for later and repeated his other question.“What about Maz Katana? What did she *say?* Does she know a way or not?”

Luke considered how he should answer; he already knew how Dar Noaa was going to take it, so he decided to get the practical aspect out of the way first.

“I’m leaving the girl with you and Leia.”

“Leaving?” Dar Noaa asked. “as in *you* are leaving?”

“I have to go,” Luke replied, “and I can’t take her with me.”

“Why? What did Maz Katana say to you?”

“Palpatine.” Luke said, as if the name alone would explain it. “I must face him. It’s the only way.”

“It is *a* way,” Dar Noaa countered, “not the *only* way.”

“It’s the only way for me, Noah.” Luke said calmly. “It’s my destiny.”

“Maz Katana said *that*?” Dar Noaa argued. “What garbage! No one has a destiny.”

“I do; I’ve known it for a very long time,” Luke didn’t expect Dar Noaa to understand, but that wasn’t necessary. “And it wasn't Maz; my father told me. The emperor himself foresaw it.”

“So what?” Dar Noaa rejected the idea as expected. “When I was young, my family sought out a mystic about my future. She held my hand and looked into my eyes, and then she told me that, one day, I would be Lord of the Sith.”

Luke choked back a laugh; he couldn’t help it.

“And what,” he asked in reply, “did you say to *that*?”

“Nothing!” Dar Noaa didn’t hold back his laugh. “When I finally stopped laughing, I gave her a handful of credits and thanked her for her time.”

“Could’ve been worse,” Luke grinned, “she might have named you Sith'ari.”

Dar Noaa laughed louder; the idea of him being the Chosen One was totally absurd; then he remembered why he’d just told the story and turned serious again.

“The point of my story,” he said sternly, lecturing Luke, “is that there is *no* such thing as destiny. The Force does not choose us; it is a natural phenomena; we can get caught in its flow, but it does not direct our lives. Destiny is what we *choose* it to be; I did not become Lord of the Sith and you do not have to face Darth Sidius.”

“Palpatine believes I can destroy him.”

“Can you?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then you have no plan,” Dar Noaa said. “You cannot go without a plan.”

Luke shrugged; Dar Noaa wasn’t wrong about that. He looked down at his right hand; it was a lifelong reminder of the time he’d made that mistake before. But he was no reckless youth now; the years had done their work; every victory, every defeat, every exercise, study and meditation had transformed him into something powerful beyond explanation. It separated him from from everything and everyone, pulling him further and further away, until he found peace only in isolation.

Then it pulled him back. And Luke knew why.

“I’ve seen a possible future,” he said. It was something Dar Noaa would understand. “One where the galaxy is safe...”

“I see only the Void.”

Luke sighed; that was the difference between them, and Dar Noaa would be astonished to learn how tiny that difference was. The Sith didn’t *believe*; he denied the leap of faith he’d *already* taken, the one that brought him to this moment. He needed evidence, so Luke would give it to him.

“Tell me something,” he asked, “why did you come looking for me?”

“I…” Dar Noaa searched his memory, but came up empty. “I do not know. I was *desperate*; no one in the Republic would listen to me. I thought if I found you, *you* could make them listen. Too late now.”

“How did you know that I would listen to you?” Luke asked. “How could you know that I was even alive to be found to listen to you?”

“I do not know;” Dar Noaa conceded. “I just... knew… I had to try.”

“And now, I know that I have to try,” Luke said quietly, forcing Dar Noaa to follow his lead. “There’s a reason why Palpatine fears me...”

Dar Noaa stared at him deeply, reaching out, silently asking the question why.

Luke let him in.

The Sith’s eyes flickered, then glowed.

“I thought I knew,” he whispered. “but I knew *nothing*. You can destroy him. What can I do?”

“Walk with me,” Luke answered, “I need a plan...”

 

…….

 

In another part of the galaxy, in the Coruscant system, deep within the cold, uncaring labyrinth that was Starlight One, Armitage Hux was still trying to comprehend what had happened to him.

Through the fog of heavy sedation, Hux learned of his fate in fragments; figures in white came and went, voices kept telling him to relax, to stop fighting it, to just let go. Those soothing words were followed by terror as the whitecoats poked and punctured and cut into his body with total indifference to the pain that it caused. He screamed and struggled against the straps that held him down, provoking one of the whitecoats to slap his face hard.

“Stop that!” an irritated voice shouted. “I’m *not* missing midshift break because of you.”

Hux felt a jab into his arm, followed by burning pain; then everything began to spin.

“That’ll keep him quiet,” the voice said. “Let’s go.”

Then silence.

Hux fought through the spin and tried to look around; except for a lone whitecoat sitting a short distance away, busy at a workstation, he’d been left alone for awhile. He was naked and cold; they hadn’t bothered to cover his body before they departed, leaving him lying exposed, a helpless mass of throbbing pain and fear.

He closed his eyes to shut it out.

The fog returned, and he was surrendering to it when he heard the sound of the door opening. Dread seized him and he couldn’t stop himself from opening his eyes to look. A tall black figure appeared there; it walked in and approached the sitting whiteocat.

“I’m sorry, sir” the whitecoat said, “but this unit is restricted...””

“Not to me,” Ren replied coldy. The tinge of menace in the voice coming from the black helmet made the whitecoat freeze in fear. “I will speak with the recipient.”

“That isn’t allowed…,” the whitecoat rose cautiously to face him, “you can’t just...”

At this point, Ren lost patience and decided to take control of the situation; he raised his hand.

“Wake him.”

The whitecoat immediately walked to the table where Hux was bound, picked up a hypogun and slapped it against the captive’s thigh, injecting him. Hux howled in pain as the drug took effect; his body reacted in jerks and spasms, but that only lasted for a few seconds, then Hux sagged and sucked air back into his lungs. His efforts stopped when he saw the black helmet looming over him.

“Armitage?” Ren leaned down and snapped his gloved fingers in Hux’s face, “Wake up!”

“Ren...”

“You can hear me,” Ren replied, “Good. Now, pay attention - I’m leaving this place.”

“Damn you… “

“And I’m taking you with me.”

“What?”

“Do you want to live?”

“I… ,” Hux squinted to get his eyes to focus on the black blur above him; they rewarded him with confirmation that it was indeed the black helmet of Kylo Ren and not a hallucination. “... yes.”

“Good.”

“You,” Ren turned to the whitecoat, “take off your clothes and give them to me.”

While the whitecoat stripped, Ren freed Hux from the straps with single swipe of his hand, then helped him sit up. Awake but still foggy, Hux stared at him in confusion.

“Why are you doing this?”

“You still have value,” Ren passed the whitecoat’s clothes to Hux, “I can’t do what I came here to do and get out alive; and I want to get out alive; very much so.” He paused to bend down and help Hux get his legs into the white pants, but Hux grabbed them out of his hands, stepped in and yanked them up on his own in an act of defiance that Ren found reassuring because it meant Hux was recovering quickly. Their escape depended on Hux being able to walk out of here on his own, and if he couldn’t do it, Ren would kill him rather than leave him behind to service Snoke. “I can’t kill Snoke, but I can hurt him; he needs your body, so I’m going to take your body away from him.”

“And no one deserves *this*,” he added, “not even you.”

Hux stopped dressing and stared at him in disbelief, but said nothing.

Soon the whitecoat was naked and Hux was dressed; Ren supported him as he took the first few steps, but then the dizziness eased enough for him to keep his balance. As they made their way to the door, Ren addressed the whitecoat.

“You’re tired; take a nap.”

The whitecoat climbed onto the empty table and stretched out; Ren waved his hand and the loose straps wrapped around arms and legs to keep him there. Another wave activated the door; Ren stepped out into the tunnel first and checked both ways.

“It’s clear,” he said. “Let’s go.”

Hux followed, and seemed surprised to see that Ren was waiting for him.

“You want me to go first?” he asked.

“No,” Ren replied, “We’re walking out of here together; side by side.”

The walk through the tunnels was unnervingly easy; they encountered no one along the way and if any of the surveillance sensors were working, no one was paying attention to them.

“This is insane,” Hux complained, “Leader Snoke will not just let us walk out of here.”

“He isn’t Leader Snoke here.”

“Supreme Leader, or Director, Snoke commands...”

“Not anymore.”

“What?”

“Just keep walking, we’re almost there.”

Another turn, and they were in a tunnel that led only to a large sealed door.

“We’re here.”

The combined stress of drugs, pain and mental exhaustion finally brought Hux to a stop; he’d come this far on Ren’s word that this door was the the way out, but now that he had arrived, Hux was petrified of what might lie beyond it. Kylo Ren didn’t rescue; he *slaughtered*; what if Ren walked him all this way just to leave his dead body lying on the hanger floor in revenge for what he and Snoke did to the Knights?

Ren reached the door first, and looked back at him.

“Try to keep up,” he urged.

Hux started walking slowly; irrationally desperate, he grasped at anything that would stall for time. His hand was shaking as he pointed at the control panel.

“We don’t know the code.” he said weakly.

“No code,” Ren tapped the control panel to show him, “this door is intended to keep beings *out*, not in.”

The door slid open, revealing that it was indeed the hanger bay. Except for the light coming from the tunnel behind them and a few dim power indicators along the walls, the Hanger was dark, but Hux could see the Transport was still there, unattended, with its ramp extended.

The Transport within sight made Ren walk faster; he headed for the ramp with purpose, but Hux trailed behind, so he stopped and turned to urge him on again, but before he could speak, Hux stopped to challenge him.

“I *know* you’re going to kill me!"

Surprised by the accusation, for a moment, Ren didn’t know what to do; then he remembered that he was wearing the black helmet, so everything he said came from the Kylo of Ren, and not him. No wonder Hux expected the worst.

He released the faceplate and removed the helmet so Hux could see his face.

“I’m *not* going to kill you,” he walked back to him, “I don’t *want* to kill you; but if you do not get up that ramp and into the ship *right* now, I will kill you.”

Hux obeyed instantly; he hurried past Ren, staggered up the ramp and disappeared. Ren followed, going straight to the cockpit, where he found Hux cowering in the copilot seat.

“Strap yourself in,” Ren commanded as he sped through preflight sequence, closing the ship tight and activating the controls. “I’m going to blow the hanger door with the aft cannon; the decompression will take us out with it.” He powered up the drive system, but left it offline. “As soon as we clear the doors, we’re going to jump.”

“A *blind* jump?” Hux protested, “Are you *crazy*?”

“Yes, I am,” Ren reminded him. “Don’t be afraid, Armitage; I’ve been jumping all my life...”

He looked over at Hux, whose face said he was not reassured at all by those words, and why should he be? He never knew Ben Solo, so he didn’t know that Ben Solo’s father taught him how to fly before he could even walk. Memories flashed; good ones this time, and Ren gave credit where it was due.

“… and I learned from the *best*.”

He fired the aft cannon and the hanger bay door dissolved in a flash of fire as the splintered metal shot out into space; the atmosphere followed, pulling the Transport with it. It took two spins before Ren got the ship stabilized and pointed in the right direction, then he brought the drive online and made the jump. They were entering hyperspace without any navigation preparation at all, so he would have to fly on instinct for awhile, but he wasn’t lost.

He knew exactly where she was.

 

……….

 

The commotion in Starlight One's hanger bay was not visible from the observation window, but it did not go unnoticed; the Darkness that was once Sheev Palpatine was surprised when he sensed it.

And greatly amused.

_It’s been a very long time since anything - or anyone - surprised me, but the child has done just that._

He was waiting for the news to be delivered; feigning attention while Snoke prattled on about details of things that no longer mattered. When the great doors slid open and the black uniformed aide entered, the ancient monster could barely contain his anticipation.

“Director Snoke,” the aide was talking fast as he approached; high pitched words that ran together. “There’s been an incident; the recipient has escaped...”

“What?” Snoke asked; astonishment that quickly became outrage, “How is that possible? Didn't you have him in restraints?"

“He had help,” the aide explained fearfully, “Kylo Ren...”

Snoke’s jaw dropped open, but no words came out. The terrified aide waited only a few seconds before continuing his report.

“… They blew out the hanger bay door, then jumped while they were still *inside* the blast; I’ve never seen anything like it…”

The the sound of laugher rose out of nowhere; deep and slow, it filled the great chamber, echoing from the walls, tumbling around and over Snoke like a landslide, slamming against him from all sides. Snoke lost his balance, then fell from his little throne, landing at the hem of his master’s robe.

“Such a *clever* child!” Palpatine peered down at him with open contempt. “So strong, so smart - and so vindictive…. “

“… His grandfather would be proud.”

 

 

…..

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you're with me til the end...


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little chapter, to keep us on pace... it's quiet, a lot like that scene in the movie where a burning fuse races toward the box of dynamite...

-31-

Hyperspace.

Nobeing fully understood what it was or how it worked, but in a galaxy where everybeing, especially the humanoid, was gifted with the ability to develop practical ways to exploit things they did not understand, that didn’t matter very much.

Compared to the reality that was hyperspace, jump technology was crude and inefficient, but that didn’t matter very much because it was fast, certainly much faster than most of the species using it. How accurate those fast methods of performing navigational calculations for hyperspace actually were didn’t matter either, because most of them worked well enough to deliver one to the locality of the destination desired alive and intact.

There were a few species able to navigate hyperspace naturally which were courted shamelessly for their knowledge and then,when their secrets had been shared, exterminated to protect those same secrets. Once this became common knowledge throughout the galaxy, the number of species that admitted to being natural jumpers quickly dropped to zero, and ever since, the science of hyperspace navigation had remained static, using technology that was now generations old; and that meant that despite other advances in hyperspace travel, setting a course still took some time.

So Ren was waiting.

The Transport was drifting idly in real space and Ren was waiting for the ship’s navigation system to finish calculating the jump course to Jakku. He’d dropped out of hyperspace not long after leaving Starlight One in order to use the region’s armada of navisats to get jump-off coordinates and free himself from the task of piloting the ship. He was mentally and physically exhausted – and hungry – so as soon as he made the next jump, there would be time to eat and get a little sleep.

Hux was slumped in the the seat next to him.

Stress and drugs had taken a huge toll on the First Order’s finest; overwhelmed and in pain, Hux kept moaning and complaining and asking annoying questions that were a distraction. Ren solved the problem by putting him to sleep; now Hux was deeply under, secured to the seat by one wrist as a precaution, and Ren had time to think about something other than not getting killed.

He wondered why Palpatine had let him go, because that’s what happened – there was no way Ren made his escape without Darth Sidius sensing it. Ren acted without a plan; he just collected Hux and left and deep down, he expected failure and death, but that didn’t happen.

_Nothing happened. Nothing at all._

Was that because he’d been extraordinarily lucky or because Palpatine simply didn’t care? Ren didn’t know, but he knew that it scared him; underneath Palaptine’s icy detachment, Ren had sensed anticipation.

_Something immense…_

A soft chime came from the console, indicating the course was set; all he had to do was make the jump and be on his way back to Rey. For one torturous moment, he paused to ask himself if this was the right thing to do, wouldn’t she be better off if he set course for somewhere else, anywhere else, to save her from the monster?

_**Come back to me.** _

She was calling him; standing high up, on a ridge, not far from where he left her.

He could feel it.

Nothing else mattered; Ren tapped the execute bar, then leaned back against the pilot seat for the jump surge.

 

……..

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, Rey was making her way down the the ridge toward the ravine.

After sending her message, she lingered up there to watch Master Luke and Dar Noaa walking together. It was impossible not to watch them; she could feel that they were engaged in something intensely important to them both. They walked out to the mouth of the ravine and then returned, pausing only long enough for Master Luke to summon her down from the ridge with a single glance her way. She intercepted them just as they reached the space between the Millennium Falcon and the Visitor.

The Jedi and the Sith stopped, but didn’t greet her; Dar Noaa was asking Master Luke a question.

“Are you *sure* about this?”

“I am.”

“I will tell Leia.”

Dar Noaa looked at Rey briefly, but said nothing, then left, heading to his ship. Master Luke didn’t even do that, he just resumed walking toward the Falcon. Rey followed, just as she had done on Ahch’tu, knowing that he chose the when and where and what and it was her place to wait.

The time came just as they reached the entry ramp, Master Luke stopped and turned to her.

“As soon as we’re inside,” he told her, “I want you to pack up your things and anything you think might be useful, and take them to the Visitor.”

“You’re sending me to them? Why? Are you *leaving*?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t leave me behind,” Rey begged, “You *need* me, Ren won’t...”

“I’m not going for Ren.”

“What? But...”

“This is important, Rey. You must stay here with Leia and Dar Noaa.”

“But...”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes, but...”

“Then it’s settled.”

She was staring at him with disbelief and confusion in her eyes, and Luke realized that he was – once again – keeping everything locked up inside himself. He was treating Rey the same way he had treated Leia before, like she was a child who needed protection from harsh reality.

He should have told Leia why he was going away; he should have told Leia that yes, he’d found evidence that their father was the result of manipulated cells and not nature; he should have told her that the oldest texts, the ones he burned on Ahch’tu, spoke of cures for troubled Force-sensitives like Ben, but were incomplete and that he was determined to find a cure, no mater how far away it took him from her, or for how long.

Now he was seeing the outcome of those secrets that he kept from his sister, looking into the eyes of the girl whose life had been changed forever because of of them.

“Rey,” he put his living hand onto her shoulder gently, “the future is always in motion...”

“I know that!” Rey snapped back, suddenly angry. “It’s what a Skywalker says when he doesn’t want to make a *commitment*.”

Luke tilted his head in a tiny shrug; Rey wasn’t completely right; it was a Jedi way of avoiding revealing too much about their visions of the future, but it could easily be taken for avoidance. Words of guidance that were mystically vague had once been very successful on a young Luke Skywalker, but it seemed unlikely that it was going to work with Rey now.

“I’ve seen a *possible* future,” Luke knew those words would hit her hard. “I cannot tell you because everything we say and do now can change it. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

“Whatever happens, stay close to Finn; you need each other.”

“I don’t think Finn will see it that way.”

“Don’t underestimate him,” Luke rebuked her gently. “He already underestimates himself too much; your faith in him could mean the difference between a future full of hope and no future at all.”

Rey’s face spoke volumes; Luke was talking about the future and Finn, not the future and Ren, and she was imagining reasons for why, but there was nothing Luke could do to reassure her; it was simply too great a risk.

“There isn’t much time,” he said instead. “Just trust me.”

Rey nodded silently; Luke released her, turned away and proceeded to walk up the ramp, and she followed.

…….

Not far away, aboard the Visitor, Leia was watching Dar Noaa as he grabbed up his things to be removed from her quarters to make room for Rey.

And arguing.

“So, just like *that*?” she accused, “and you agreed with him?”

Dar Noaa stopped rummaging and looked at her.

“It’s not ‘just like that’,” he replied, “and yes, I agree with him. Luke may be our only hope.”

_Our only hope._

How Leia hated those words! She’d said them too many times.

“No, he’s not going *anywhere*,” she said, “I won’t let him; not this time.”

Dar Noaa dropped his things onto the sleep platform and went to her, then wrapped his arms around her.

“No,” he told her, “you will shout and you will cry and then you will say goodbye. Not you, not I, not both of us together could stop him, Leia; he’s that powerful. He believes it’s his destiny.”

“Do you?”

Dar Noaa pulled her closer; holding her made this unexplored territory, this metaphysics, less frightening to think about. Did he believe it? The answer was yes, but that was because it was the only chance he could see, and he needed to believe right now because the alternative to believing was utter despair; and so, he would give her the answer she needed to hear, and then he would make himself believe it, too.

“Yes,” he whispered, “I believe."

…………….

Finn was lying on his sleep platform when the summon came; Dar Noaa wished to speak with him outside. Still drowning in anger, Finn didn’t want to speak with anyone about anything, but refusing to come when summoned was not an option, so he dragged himself up and out to see what Dar Noaa wanted this time.

When he stepped out the entry, he was surprised to see that Dar Noaa was not alone; General Organa and Luke Skywalker were with him. So was Rey; carrying a bundle in her arms, she walked right up to him, then past him, without a word and went inside the Visitor.

“Young Finn,” Dar Noaa waved him over, “Master Luke requires your attention.”

Finn started walking, but so did Dar Noaa and the General; they were returning to the ship and passed him on the way, so when Finn got to where Luke Skywalker was waiting, only the two of them remained outside. Finn held the Jedi Master in such awe that being alone in his presence was almost overwhelming; Finn felt as tiny and insignificant as the hot, dry dust being stirred up by his footsteps. Master Luke wasn’t even looking at him; instead he was staring up at the ridge, so Finn took refuge in habit, and stood at attention, waiting.

“Womp rats.”

“Sir?”

“Womp rats,” Luke repeated it. “This place should have womp rats.”

“I’m sorry, sir, I don’t understand.”

“Oh,” Luke gave a little laugh, then looked at Finn, “I was just remembering something...” He noticed Finn’s stance and added, “Please; at ease, Finn.”

Finn responded automatically; hands went behind his back. Master Luke’s gaze was powerful; for a few seconds, Finn felt himself being examined, then the Jedi released him.

“Dar Noaa speaks well of you; so does the General.”

Finn felt the flush of pride and then embarrassment; the pride from hearing that the two beings he most wanted to think well of him did; and then the embarrassment over feeling pride about it. It was a strange new feeling for him, strong, confusing and conflicted, but he liked it.

“Thank you, sir.”

“You and I have some things in common,” the Jedi Master said, “like you, I didn’t learn about the Force until I was grown; and like you, I had to learn the ways of the Force... fast and fragmented.”

“Yes, sir,” Finn agreed.

“… with no time to stop and think if it’s what we want...”

“I want it, sir.”

Luke snorted softly, a subdued laugh with a note of sadness to it.

“You’re *young*,” he said, “I remember those days.”

“Sir, I know I’m new to all of this,” Finn feared this encounter might be about whether the Jedi Master would agree to train him, so he presented his case eagerly, “and I probably sound like an idiot right now, but I believe that I’m finally where I was always *meant* to be; I can *feel* it.”

Luke looked away, into the distance, before answering.

“I remember," he muttered, "I felt it, too.”

With that, the Jedi Master seemed lost in thought, so Finn waited quietly as the moment passed, trying to imagine how Luke could possibly want him, a nobody...

“I need your help,” Luke said.

Finn’s face froze in astonishment; this was something he never expected to hear.

“Sir?” he asked quietly, seeking confirmation of what he’d just heard.

“I need your help.”

“You have it; *anything*”

“I have to leave for awhile,” Luke looked past Finn, this time toward the Visitor, “will you look after my family while I’m away?”

A sudden, renewed sense of purpose flowed through Finn; he accepted the honor instantly.

“Yes, sir.”

“I’m leaving Rey in your care, too,” Luke added.

“Sir?”

“Will you look after Rey, too?”

“Yes.” Finn heard the reluctance in his voice as he said it; he was sure the Jedi Master heard it, too. “I will try.”

“I know I’m asking a lot of you,” there was grave sincerity in the Jedi Master’s voice, “but put your feelings aside, Finn; it’s important.”

Finn felt the presence in his head again, giving him gentle but earnest encouragement.

“Listen carefully,” Luke instructed, “from now on, you and Rey must stay together; stay at her side, no matter what.”

“That won’t be easy, she’s very… independent."

“I’ve instructed her to keep you close,” Luke replied. “She will.”

“If she’s in danger...”

“We’re *all* in danger, Finn,” Luke put it plainly. “You know what’s at stake; we have a chance if we’re willing to work together, willing to *trust* each other, even when it makes no sense,” he lowered his eyes, “if we can’t, then there’s no chance at all.”

Finn narrowed his eyes, wondering.

“Dar Noaa says you can see the future...”

“The future is always in motion,” Luke stopped him there, reciting the familiar before revealing as much as he dared. “If you work together, you just might save the galaxy.”

“Save the galaxy? *Me*?”

Luke heard himself in Finn’s voice; long ago, he’d reacted to similar words in the same way. He hated moments like this, when there was so much he could tell the unsuspecting innocent standing beside him but didn’t dare to. If he meddled with the future any more than he already had, it would punish them all for it.

“I can’t say more,” he was telling himself as well as Finn. “Trust me.”

“I trust you.”

There was no question in Finn’s mind as he said it, and it wasn’t because Dar Noaa and the General trusted Luke; it was because of something else, something that Finn was experiencing for the very first time.

He *sensed* Luke Skywalker.

Finn felt him; his kindness, his wisdom, a thousand things beyond Finn’s comprehension and then underneath it, his power and the humility the Jedi Master possessed in spite of that power. Finn’s life under the First Order was trust by demand; this was a being who made no demand at all, but was infinitely more deserving of trust. He knew what to say.

“May the Force be with us.”

It was exactly what Luke Skywalker wanted to hear.

…….

 

Hyperspace.

The Transport was was moving smoothly and, except for the hum of engines at work and an occasional grunt or snore from Hux, it was quiet in the cockpit. Ren had eaten as much as he could hold down, and now was slouching in the pilot seat, trying to get comfortable.

Trying to sleep.

It was no easy task, either; it was hard enough just being crazy, but being *exhausted* and crazy made it impossible. Everything that happened at Starlight One nagged at him, especially not being able to kill Snoke, although seeing Supreme Leader as he really was made killing the little monster seem like a favor he did not deserve, considering...

Then there was Hux.

Rescued, not killed; why? Ren would have to think about that for a little while… later.

And then there was Palpatine. The big monster; the one who let him leave...

So much to think about, but Ren was too tired to think any more. He closed his eyes; usually he dreaded sleep and the dreams that came with it, but perhaps if he imagined the sound of rain pounding against metal, the dreams might be about her…

 

………..

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, the day raced by much too fast.

The preparations had been made; Chewbacca and R2D2 reported the Falcon was ready to depart on Luke’s word. Although she’d been offered room in the Visitor, Maz requested to stay onboard, and no one could refuse her. Luke was grateful that he would have her counsel during the journey; her access to Yoda’s wisdom was as precious as her own centuries of experience.

There was only one thing left to do now; Leia was waiting.

She was standing alone midway between the two ships; her arms crossed tightly in a combination of steely resolve and defensive self-hug. It was one of a hundred endearing little things she did that told him how she felt. She was bearing up for his sake, but he could feel the pain she was hiding so bravely behind those arms.

He walked to where she was and they stood there in silence for much too long.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said. “I want to say ‘don’t go’. I always want to say that, but then I never do. It’s not *fair*.”

“No,” he replied, “it’s not.”

“Why does it have to be *you*?”

“It just does,” he took her hand in his, “we’ve both always known that. The rebellion, the Resistance; that had to be you, and for me, it’s… this.”

“But if everything’s going to end anyway, why...”

“I’ll show you.”

He looked deeply into her eyes, sharing what he’d seen, what he knew.

_A moment drifting, lost in time; father and child; the sound of a little girl’s laughter…_

“Oh, Luke!” she gasped, “if only...”

“I have to go.”

She held his hand so tight, it started to hurt, but she didn’t cry.

“I love you.” she said.

“Then wish me luck,” he replied.

 "Good luck," she sighed, " and may the Force be with you."

 

…………...

 

Hyperspace.

_Blinding, bright; first red, then blue, then yellow, then white..._

_Merciless light and dry heat; late afternoon; something unseen was burning. He was standing on the ridge, watching the girl with the staff as she walked out onto the plain. Tekka was standing beside him._

“ _You hear,”_ _Tekka_ _complained, “but you do not listen.”_

“ _I heard you,”_ _Ren replied_ _. “I gave her back.”_

“ _Not that.”_

“ _Then what?”_

“ _Save the girl.” Tekka faded, dissipating like a spent flame. “Remember what you heard...”_

 _Suddenly the ground beneath_ _hi_ _s feet tremble_ _d_ _, then shook_ _violently_ _, then a cloud of rock and dust blasted over him and the light was gone._

 

It was over.

Ren was awake, still shaking from the blast.

 _What did Tekka mean?_ He wondered. _What did I hear?_

Everything that had taken place at Starlight One replayed in his memory; most of it was unimportant, but then he remembered:

“ _Preparations are complete. We are ready for activation at your command.”_

The words by themselves meant little, but then Ren remembered his conversation with Hux when they first arrived there:

“… _when the time is right, we will activate the integration hub; then we will control it from one edge of the galaxy to the other.”_

Suddenly Ren realized the danger; Tekka must have known it all along.

He had to warn her:

_**Get off the Goazon!** _

He could only hope his warning reached her in time.

 

…………...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not long now...


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was typing away, unsure if I would get enough of it done in time, unsure if it was even necessary, since everyone already had something to do this weekend. Then the news came about Carrie and I simply needed to post it tonight.

 -32-

Something was wrong.

The evening air was unusually hot and dry, and absolutely still; unbearable; it was as if the Goazon had been covered with an invisible lid that kept the day's energy trapped inside. Everything that could escape the merciless conditions had taken refuge underneath or inside whatever it could find, and now they waited for darkness to bring relief. Day became dusk, but the heat remained; creatures great and small became uneasy, then restless; instead of relief, the darkness brought only anxiety.

There was nothing alive on the surface of the Goazon, so there were no witnesses when a circle of capped spikes began to rise from the dust. As soon as the caps were free and above the ground, they snapped open like umbrellas, giving the spikes the appearance of bizarre metal fungi as they continued to emerge from the ground. Bulges appeared on the spikes at regular intervals, then split open and bloomed like flowers into cones that faced outward. The growth continued slowly for almost half an hour, and by then the tops of the spikes were at least thirty meters high; they looked as if the slightest breeze would make them sway uncontrollably.

But tonight there was no air moving; conditions on the Goazon were perfect for their purpose.

The stillness was broken by the pulsing sound of a pump working hard and the spikes began to vibrate; seconds later, the cones started to spray a thick liquid that turned into foam as it fell, swiftly building into a pile, then a foamy pillar. Then the pillars spread together into a wall and the circle of spikes was enclosed completely by it.

The spray stopped; the foamy fortress wiggled and hissed and hardened, releasing a chemical that had the odor of burning plastic. And then, inside the wall, the very lowest of the cones turned inward, then up, aligning to a shared point of focus.

Then they fired.

A blinding ball of superheated plasma, manufactured lightning, burst into existence, expanding fast, hitting the wall of foam that surrounded it. The foam exploded, sending out a shockwave that expanded like a bubble, speeding over the plain, scraping up soil, sand and rocks as it raced toward the ridges and ravines in the distance, a horizontal avalanche moving at tremendous speed.

And in one of those ravines, the crew of the Visitor was settled in for the night; except for Rey, she was anything but settled…

 

The ship was small; it was impossible to move around inside without coming into close contact with its other occupants, so Rey had been confining herself to her sleep platform in General Organa’s quarters since she arrived in order to to avoid them. The awkward, uncomfortable and forced conversations, where they tried valiantly to pretend that they didn’t know why Finn was staying in his quarters, were a strain on everyone, especially on Rey because she had once again been left behind.

_Everyone leaves me._

Only a few hours earlier, Master Luke left her behind; his departure was rushed and his explanation for why he was going amounted to little more than ‘Trust me’, so Rey was left to decipher the meaning behind his words to her by herself. Not only that, he’d hurried her and her things out of the Falcon so quickly that she had no chance to say goodbye to Chewbacca and Maz beyond a wave from outside as Master Luke led her away and sent her directly to the Visitor.

That’s where she was, being given instructions by Poe on how to operate the ships’ sanitary station when she heard the sound of the Millennium Falcon taking off. She ran to the entry and stepped outside to look, but the Falcon was already airborne and shrinking in the distance.

Everyone else inside the Visitor missed it, too, except for General Organa, who was standing alone in the swirling dust wake, watching it go. The general greeted her with a long, silent hug. Rey hugged her back; maybe it was because she didn’t know what else to do or say, or maybe it was because right now, Rey needed a hug as badly as the general did.

“Well,” Leia finally composed herself enough to let go, and even managed a smile for Rey, “what do you say we get you settled in?”

“There’s not much to settle,” Rey replied. “I only have a few things, and I think some of them are yours...”

“I noticed,” Leia’s smile broadened, “but not that black shirt...”

“It’s… borrowed from someone.”

“It all looks better on you than it would on me now, anyway,” Leia laughed, then looked up and away, at something that was no longer there to see, “I always kept extra clothes… “ she paused to let the memories pass, “… even though I wasn’t there as much as I should have been…” She sighed and let them go. “It’s funny, no matter how long I was away from it, the Falcon always felt like home.”

“Yes,” Rey agreed, and they headed back to the ship together.

Inside the ship, a quick survey as they walked to their quarters revealed that Dar Noaa was in the cockpit completely absorbed in a stream of data on the waveform; that was unusual because Poe was not in his favorite spot there, but BB8, which was usually to be found at Finn’s feet somewhere else, *was* there - at Dar Noaa’s feet. Passing the sleep quarters, they heard Poe and Finn talking behind the closed door of their shared room and nothing from the other.

The door to Rey’s latest place to sleep was open; Leia walked inside, went directly to her sleep platform and dropped onto it.

“I’m tired,” she said, “Mind if I close my eyes for awhile?”

“Not at all.”

Shutting out the universe for awhile sounded like a good idea to Rey, so she closed the door behind her and walked to her own platform, where the few things she’d brought with her waited to be put someplace else. Rey quietly found places to tuck her things away, then plopped down onto her sleep platform and tried to get comfortable.

That was an hour ago.

Unable to fall asleep in these new surroundings, Rey was watching Leia sleep, trying to imagine what she must have been like when she was younger, when Ren was still Ben. That led her thoughts to Han Solo; how much she liked him, and how quickly. It was difficult to imagine how things had gone so terribly wrong between father and son; perhaps it was because they were so much alike.

And that made her think about Ren.

He was out there somewhere, alone, without her. Rey wondered if he thought about her as much as she thought about him. It would serve him right if she was present in his head the way he was in hers; if he was feeling the same ache she was feeling right now…

_**Get off the Goazon!**_

It was so clear, so intense; it felt as if he was right there in the room with her. Rey pushed herself up from the platform, letting her legs slide off the edge until she felt her feet touch the floor; and instantly felt the vibration.

_Sandquake coming._

This time, it was no mistake; it was coming, and even though it was almost imperceptible at the moment, Rey could tell it was a big one. She almost jumped across the room to shake the general awake, but the sandquake was faster than her; a sudden, violent jolt threw her off balance; she staggered backwards and only escaped crashing to the floor by grabbing the room’s little waveform desk.

“General!” she shouted, but Leia was already awake.

…….

In the cockpit, Dar Noaa was gripping the empty pilot’s seat.

 “Get us off the ground!”

The ship complied instantly, probably because it had already decided to do exactly that, but it didn’t lift-off, it launched itself straight up with a powerful blast of its ventral thrusters. Except for Dar Noaa, everyone else in the ship took the ride without warning, and it got very bad very fast; as the ship rose, it was hit by an incredible blast that shoved it sideways. A deafening roar of sand and rock scraping the hull drowned out the shouts of the crew as they struggled to keep their balance and get out of the sleep chambers.

The nightmare lasted for many long seconds before the ship managed to climb out of the blast and stabilize itself, but there was nothing Dar Noaa could do but hold on where he was until the ship stopped shaking. When it did, he was relieved to see everyone enter the cockpit together; the young ones looked battered and frightened, but they were hovering around Leia protectively.

“Is any one injured?” Dar Noaa asked.

“We’re shaken up,” Leia answered from the center of the little crowd, “but everyone says they’re okay.

"What happened?”

“Sandquake,” Rey explained.

“No,” Dar Noaa corrected her, “That was a *shockwave*; something happened out on the Goazon.”

He waited while the group spread out; Poe and Dar Na slipped past him to take their respective seats, giving Leia room to come to him while Finn and Rey stayed where they were. One reassuring look later, Dar Noaa turned to the waveform.

“Show me the Goazon.”

The holographic display appeared, but it was difficult to understand; a huge dust cloud obscured everything below.

“Too close,” Dar Noaa said, “take us higher; ninety degrees positive.”

The ship replied with a single ding, everyone held on to something, or someone, as it once again used the ventral thrusters to go straight up.

As the ship gained altitude, the holoimage perspective changed with it, until they were so high that the entire Goazon appeared and they saw that the dust cloud was actually an expanding circle of destruction that had come from the very center of the Goazon and was now blasting up the sides of the ridges that defined it.

And there, in the spot where it originated, was a huge hole; an open wound on the plain.

“What is that?” Dar Noaa asked. “An impact?”

“No,” the ship replied. “A detonation; on the surface; detecting atmospheric traces of merrokorbonite.”

“Merrokorbonite?” Confused, Dar Noaa stared deep into the image, seeking, and he saw movement – the wound was expanding, too. It’s growth was jerky, as if it was being enlarged in deliberate stages. “Scan the central region.”

The ship complied; under magnification, the surface of the Goazon was no longer rock and sand; instead it was flat, almost smooth – and marked! The markings were uniform; a distinct geometric pattern that proclaimed it was *manufactured*, not natural. The wound’s expansion was happening in distinct segments, as if the surface was being pulled back mechanically...

Suddenly, it all made sense.

“The Empire base is *awake*,” Dar Noaa said, “It’s opening up the entire Goazon; the blast that almost buried us back there was simply their way of clearing the desert out of the way first.”

“But,” Leia said, “Luke said it was dormant.”

“It was.” Dar Noaa turned to the waveform again. “What do the Kourin know about this place?”

“Nothing.”

The ship’s reply was distressing; Leia put a hand on Dar Noaa’s arm in an effort to prevent him from getting too angry too fast. Distracted, he looked at her for a second with glowing eyes that darkened as he calmed down and reconsidered what to ask.

 “The First Order never used Nourin here?” he asked.

“No.” the ship replied.

“No Kyber technology?”

“None.”

Dar Noaa had to accept that as fact; there was a power source under the Goazon, but it was not Kyber crystal. Had it been, Luke would have sensed it even if he couldn’t. Whatever lay beneath that growing wound, it was almost certainly old Empire technology because large scale Kyber crystal technology was still relatively new when the Empire was driven from Jakku.

_Jakku... The Empire... It was Palpatine who would have ordered it be done here..._

Dar Noaa watched the expanding wound; it was growing with astonishing speed now; soon the Goazon would be an empty bowl.

_A dish..._

_A vast, open dish..._

“Noah?” Leia had been watching him closely, reading his face. “Why is this happening?”

“Let’s find out,” Dar Noaa replied, then turned to Poe, “Take us down there.”

“Yes, sir.”

Poe put his hand on the waveform to take control, already seeing the spiral he could make to take them down and inside the gaping hole below in his mind. Even in the gloom, it would be easy, because the ship was already displaying the metal and composite that was now the Goazon for him.

A touch of his finger and the Visitor began to descend.

 

……..

 

Hyperspace.

Ren didn’t know how much longer he could stand it.

It seemed like forever since he’d sent the warning, and he’d gotten no reply.

_Why doesn’t she *answer*?_

Fear and frustration were building up fast; when that happened, the usual result was physical damage someplace, but the only nonessential item in the Transport cockpit was Hux, and as much as Ren needed to release the tension, the man sleeping in the chair next to him had already been through enough.

Ren tried reciting the Code, but the familiar words that never failed to help him stay in control before barely managed to do it now.

_Why doesn’t she *answer*?_

He decided to try something else; something old; something his uncle taught him a long time ago when he was going through a very bad time at the Academy. It required him to still his mind, to take control of his inner demons and silence them so he would be open to the Force.

_Take control…_

The idea was ridiculous, of course; but he had to try. Focusing as best he could, he closed his eyes, reached out and touched the Force - and found someone waiting there for him.

“ _Master Luke?”_

“ _Ben.”_

“ _It's good to… see you.”_

“ _Same here.”_

“ _Where are we?”_

“ _Hyperspace.”_

“ _I’m going back to Jakku.”_

“ _You’re needed there.”_

“ _Where are you going?”_

“ _To finish what I started.”_

Ren felt a gentle push, then he was back in the Transport with a dull ache in his head. As he was leaning forward, putting his head to his hands to counter it, he heard his uncle’s voice again; this time it was only a fading whisper.

_May the Force be with you.”_

 

……… _._

 

In another part of the galaxy, the Goazon was no more.

In its place, there was now a deep valley; what was once sand and rock and dust was now nothing at all. The sweeper bomb had done its job well; there was little dust left in the air that took the Goazon's place, because the rest of it was now blasted over and past the ridges and far beyond.

Nightfall was shrouding it in shadow when the Visitor finished its careful spiral into its depths and now the ship hovered in place, suspended in the blackness while its sensors explored what they could not see below. Poe held a finger over the waveform in anticipation.

“Want the lights?” he asked.

“No,” Dar Noaa answered, “Keep us dark and quiet; let the vessel choose a place to land.”

“Yes, sir.” Poe replied. “You heard him, Viz.”

The ship replied, a single ding.

While the ship determined the best point of entry, Dar Noaa turned his attention from the holodisplay to his crew.

“When we land,” he looked at Leia, “Dar Na and I will go out first.”

“I’m coming with you,” Leia informed him; her tone said this was not negotiable. “How much do you know about Empire… *anything*?”

“I’m coming, too,” Finn stepped up to get his attention.

“So am I,” Rey followed Finn’s lead.

“Commendable, both of you,” Dar Noaa replied, “but this is a complete unknown.”

“Not to me,” Rey said.

“She’s *Jakkun*,” Finn added quickly, “Nobody knows old technology better than she does.”

Dar Noaa looked at Leia, who nodded in agreement.

“We need her,” Leia said, “and Finn, too. Luke said they should stay together.”

“All right, then,” Dar Noaa agreed reluctantly, “Dar Na will remain on board with Poe and you three will come with me.”

Dar Na jumped to his feet instantly to protest, but Da Noaa turned to him and raised a hand in a gesture of authority that silenced the young Sith immediately.

“Finn goes with us,” Dar Noaa said firmly. “Poe will take the vessel back to the ridge and wait for us to call for it. Keeping the vessel safe is *paramount*; your place is there; you will protect the vessel and should something happen to Poe, pilot it back here to pick us up. Finn cannot pilot, but he can protect; so he remains here. Is that understood?”

Dar Na grunted loudly. The sound needed no translation; it conveyed reluctant obedience and genuine concern. Dar Noaa stretched his arm further, touching Dar Na.

“We will be fine,” Dar Noaa assured him, then he dropped his arm and turned around to look down on Poe, “Stay out of the ravine, “ he instructed, “the ground there is dangerous now. Find a spot along the ridge; there’s so much dust and debris on the coatings now that anything scanning it will read only a large boulder.” He leaned over a little to stress the next point. “But stay *alert*; if anything happens to this vessel, we lose *everything*.”

“Yes, sir,” Poe answered.

The next few minutes were spent in preparation; weapons and lights checked, additional layers of clothing because it read cold out there;  except for what was absolutely necessary, no one said much.

Rey finished checking her blaster and looked up to see Finn standing there.

“We do this...” Finn extended his hand, “… *together*.”

His voice was resolute; Rey searched his face for a second and saw the strength there; this Finn was not the cowering deserter she once thought him to be. She took his hand and held it tight.

“Together.” she said.

The sound of a single ding coming from the waveform told them that the ship had selected a landing site; it was already on its way down, descending slowly, making small corrections along the way. It touched down softly, coming to rest on a narrow platform that was barely large enough to accommodate it.

“Some kind of walkway,” Poe pointed into the display, “It turns and goes; inside, maybe?”

“We shall see,” Dar Noaa answered. “Let’s go.”

Minutes later, the landing party was making its way carefully through the dark; passing one locked entry door after another along the way. Dar Noaa was reluctant to attempt forcing one open, though; there was no way to know if doing so would provoke a response, and if so, what that response would be. But they’d already come so far that there was not much chance of escaping the way they’d just come, so the risk was starting to look like it was worth taking, and he decided to stop and examine the next entry they encountered.

The entry offered no clues; he would have to take a chance, to trust the feeling in his gut that this entry was the right one. He reached into his robe and pulled out the little metal rod, pressed it against the entry wall, but then hesitated.

He was taking much too long to decide, so Leia did it for him.

“Just do it, Noah.”

He tapped the top, and the entry slid open.

Finn and Rey moved to the front; Rey went directly to the interior control panel, where a code was flashing brightly, illuminating the space in jarring bursts of yellow light that revealed it was a hallway that ran parallel to the outside walkway.

“It’s reporting a circuit failure; not an intrusion,” her fingers were busy, entering an old code that satisfied the display, stopping the alert and plunging the space into darkness again. “I told it we’re making a modification.”

Dar Noaa aimed his light one way, then the other; both directions looked the same, long and dark.

“Which way now?” Finn asked.

“I do not know yet,” Dar Noaa answered. He reached out, not sure of what he was seeking. “This might take some time...”

“Noah.”

 It was Leia interrupting his effort; he looked at her, clearly annoyed.

“What?”he asked.

“Look.”

Her light was pointing at the wall that was in a direct line from the entry they’d just come through; and on the wall, at the Base Directory.

“Oh.”

Dar Noaa walked to the Directory and quickly scanned the list; ‘Operations Center’ seemed like a logical place to start, but then he noticed that one line in the entries seemed brighter, newer, than the rest, and he knew instantly where to go. “This one, I think.”

“Project FP1001,” Finn read the name aloud, “First Order code.”

“Exactly,” Dar Noaa answered, “Like us, this should not be here; so this is where we start.”

 

……

 

Far above, a Transport had just dropped out of Hyperspace.

It descended rapidly, diving into the atmosphere on a direct heading for the Goazon, much too fast and at an incredibly steep and dangerous angle.

Hux was awake.

The Transport was screeching with overheating alarms everywhere, rudely ripping him out of a sound sleep.

Ren didn’t notice, he was busy at the controls; the ship’s navigation system was rebelling against the set course because the sensor readings no longer matched the chart. The coordinates he’d entered were correct; they should be approaching the landing point for the hidden base, but the Transport insisted there was nothing there to land on.

He discarded the chart and activated the real-time sensors for guidance because the visual display was nothing but black.

“What are you doing?” Hux shouted, not even trying to disguise his dread. He had no idea what was happening, but the heat alone told him enough.“Pull up!”

“Relax, Armitage,” Ren kept his eyes on the display. “It’s not as bad as it looks.”

“As it looks? It’s *black*!”

“Wait...” Ren watched the display, “Wait...” he saw what he needed; feedback - not from the surface of the Goazon, but from the landing site beneath it that they’d used before. “There.” Hitting the target without crashing into it required a sharp bank and then a a spiral. “Hold on; I need to make a few adjustments...”

The Transport banked hard, almost going into a spin, pressing them painfully back into their seats, but Ren’s concentration didn’t falter. The Transport seemed to shudder as he corrected for it, easing it out into a tight spiral, using the short bursts from positioning thrusters to brake.

Hux was gripping his seat tightly when he felt contact below; one hard thump, two aftershocks and the Transport was down.

“See?” Ren switched off the thrusters and started a scan. “Not as bad as it looked.”

“Where are we?” Hux glared at him.

“Jakku.” Ren watched the holoimage build, confirming their location. “The Goazon.”

“The base?” Hux stared at the image as if it might tell him. “Why did you bring us back *here*? Nobody could’ve missed that descent! They had to have seen us; they’ll be coming.”

“No they won't,” Ren shook his head. “Listen.”

Silence; the comlink was idle.

“Nothing,” Ren informed him, “No chatter, not even the ping of a transponder. The First Order is *gone*.”

“Total evacuation?” Hux didn’t believe it. “That can’t be right; I assigned permanent troops here.”

“I don’t think we’re playing that game anymore,” Ren replied.

“What does that mean?”

Ren didn’t answer.

Hux looked over at him; the Kylo of Ren wasn’t looking at the display; he wasn’t looking at anything.

“Ren?”

Ren heard Hux, but he couldn’t answer; his senses were overwhelming him.

_Rey. She's here!  
_

He could feel her; she was down here, in the worst of all possible places to be - and not only that, his *mother* was here, too!

There was no time to waste; he shook himself out of it. A quick gesture and the cuff fell from Hux’s wrist, freeing him.

“Get up,” Ren said. “You’re going back in there, and I’m coming with you.”

 

…….

 

Not far away, the landing party had found FP1001, and managed to open the door. The room was cold and totally dark; although there was a low hum that hinted at activity, none of the panels or free-standing devices had any indicator lights glowing to reveal which of them was online, and searching among the dozens of possibilities by hand-held lights was going to be a long and frustrating task.

“There should be a light sensor,” Rey ran her hand along the wall, “somewhere along… here it is.”

“Can we risk turning the lights on in here?” Leia asked nervously.

“We must,” Dar Noaa replied. “I suspect our time is severely limited. Do it.”

Rey pressed the panel and the ceiling lit up, showering in light and dismay; the room was filled with row after row of vintage workstations.

“There must be a hundred of them in here,” Leia groaned.

“Let’s get on with it,” Dar Noaa walked to the closest row.

“Wait,” Rey sounded surprisingly upbeat, “I *know* these units; they’re networked. All we have to do is crack one of them open, bypass the security wall, and we can access them all.”

“You can *do* this?” Dar Noaa perked up. “Please do so.”

Smiling confidently, Rey walked up to the closest workstation and examined it.

“This one will do,” she reached into the pouch hanging from her waist sash and pulled out Ren’s little dagger. “The trick is...” she pushed the blade slowly into the tiny crack where the top and a side panel were joined, wiggling it side to side until she heard it tap against something metal. “… to spring the release from *inside*...” she made a fist with her free hand and banged it down on the spot she heard the sound come from. There was a pop and the side panel fell forward, exposing the workstation’s circuitry. “… and we’re in.”

In the brief time it took Dar Noaa to arrive beside her, Rey cut two cables, stripped them bare and wound them together.

“Try it now,” she pointed blindly around the side, to where the power button should be.

Dar Noaa pressed it and the workstation came to life; or rather, it *crawled* to life as a boot program that hadn’t been accessed in years ran through its routine while Dar Noaa watched impatiently. When it finished, however, it automatically brought the other workstations online as well, giving him access to them all just as Rey promised.

He got to work immediately; Leia and Finn came up beside him to watch, and he had need of them.

“If either of you see anything,” he instructed, “that sounds ‘First Order’, tell me at once.”

Finished with the inside job, Rey glanced appreciatively at the dagger before putting it back into the pouch.

_Ren!_

This time it wasn’t imagination or wishful thinking; it wasn’t a message, either.

_He’s here. He's coming this way…_

Rey stood perfectly still; the others were completely focused on the workstation and showed no sign that they had sensed him yet, but it was only a matter of minutes, perhaps seconds, before they would. Terrible fear surged through her; there had been no discussion about what would happen if Ren came back; she’d been afraid to tell them what she’d been doing. Now it was happening, and Rey saw impending disaster.

She quietly took a step back, then another, then another. Nobody noticed.

She took more steps, then more, until she was standing directly in the open doorway.

“Look!” Dar Noaa touched the display screen with his finger. “*This* could be what we’re looking for.”

Leia and Finn leaned in closer, watching the display intently, giving Rey the chance she needed.

She stepped back, into the hallway, turned and raced into the dark.

 

……

 

Not far away at all now, Hux was trying to keep up.

Unlike Ren, who strode through the darkness without any apprehension at all, Hux was limited to the range of his light and his fear of the unknown. The fact that Ren was wearing black, so he was totally invisible in the blackness ahead, only added to his distress.

“Ren?”

“I’m still here, Armitage; stop whining and keep up.”

“I could just wait here.”

Silence.

“Ren?”

Silence.

Hux stopped, then surveyed the hallway with his light as far head as it would reveal; when he saw it was empty, he was unsure if he was relieved or terrified, but he knew he’d been left behind.

 

…….

 

Ren and Rey. It was just them now.

They moved through the darkness; with every hallway, every turn, one by one, all other thoughts faded from their minds. When they finally made that final turn and saw each other in the glow of their lights; it was totally expected and a complete surprise.

“I...” He was standing in front of her; she was real; she was right here, and everything he wanted to say vanished from his head, “… came back.”

“I see that.” she replied.

Suddenly he was helpless; unsure and afraid, he lowered his eyes as he struggled with the words.

“I...”

She stepped closer, coming within his reach.

“Me, too.” she said.

 He found the courage to look up again, into her eyes.

“You shouldn’t.”

She took another step toward him.

“But I do.”

Dropping his light, he reached out and touched her shoulders, stopping her.

“You know what I am.”

She slipped in between his arms.

“I know *who* you are.”

He her let his arms close behind her.

“I’ve done things...”

“You can make things right again,” She dropped her light too, putting them both in shadow, then she put her left hand to his right cheek and gently traced the mark she’d given him with her fingers; he closed his eyes, listening. “I’ll help you.”

Her touch made him dare to hope; he opened his eyes again and looked deep into hers; he’d take the chance, since there was only one warning left to give her now anyway.

“I’ll drive you crazy.”

She put her hands around his neck, then stood on her toes, lifting her face to his, claiming him.

“We’ll see,” she whispered.

He scooped her up and kissed her.

They were lost in each other; her lips against his, their bodies touching, their hearts pounding; all of it blending together into something mindless and perfect. Ren wanted to stay right here forever...

_Save the girl._

He forced himself to stop kissing her, but couldn’t put her down. Not yet.

“I told you,” he whispered breathlessly, “to get *off* the Goazon, not jump *into* it!”

Her eyes widened.

“We had to come.”

“Why?” He set her down. “What don’t I know?”

Rey began to talk; he listened.

 

They were together; nothing else mattered; neither of them sensed that just a few hundred meters away, in the darkness, someone was heading their way.

Finn.

…………….


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Goodbye 2016, and good riddance...
> 
> The next chapter might get big, and so it might be late.

-33-

Starlight One.

Alone in the darkness, he was like a statue, cold and motionless, standing there gazing out into the beauty of the galaxy with soulless eyes.

_Finally…_

The countless years of careful planning, scheming, merciless betrayals, and setback after setback all faded from his memory until only the great plan remained. His eyes kept leading him back to Coruscant; from here, it was merely a bright star suspended in the glow, but to Palpatine, it was the center of all things.

_Almost time; Coruscant…_

He would be there for the final instant of mortal existence; no other place was worthy.

_Finally..._

His solitude was broken by the sound of the doors opening behind him; but he did not turn from his vigil.

_What will it be like..._

The black uniformed aide walked into the great chamber without hesitation because he had a good report to deliver to his master.

“Good news, sir,” he called to the robed figure at the far end of the chamber, “Phase one is complete; Goazon base is clear and open.”

“Excellent. Were there any problems?”

“Nothing unusual; the sweeper and retractors worked perfectly.”

“The base is secure?”

“Yes; a few movement alarms, probably vermin startled by the opening; and a few impacts from above, but we always see those. The auto-sentries are online, not that it matters now; nothing will survive.”

“Vermin… yes,” Palpatine said quietly, as if to himself, “… clever child...”

“Sir?”

Waving his hand to demand silence, Palpatine finally turned to his aide.

“Is my staff ready to depart??”

“Yes; on the transport, awaiting your arrival.”

“And where is Director Snoke?”

“The Director,” the aide’s voice was a wicked blend of amusement and contempt, “has sealed himself securely in his projection room. I understand he’s working on his message to the galaxy once the Hub is active.”

“Leave him to it, then,” Palpatine replied coldly. “We are finished here; begin shutdown and board the Transport; I will join you presently.”

The black uniformed aide bowed and left, leaving his master alone once again. Turning back to the view, Palpatine allowed himself the pleasure of one last long look at his galaxy.

_Finally..._

……..

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, things were moving much too fast.

Finn was angry.

She’d given Master Luke her word. She’d given him her word.

And then she’d *broken* it.

Despite her promise to stay together, when he glanced away from the workstation to see why she was so quiet, she was gone. Calling to her brought no reply, so he abandoned Dar Noaa and the General to go after her without asking permission.

He heard them calling as he left them behind.

At the first dark turn, he stopped to listen; then he whispered loudly.

“Rey?”

Silence.

The first turn was an easy choice, it only went one direction, but that hallway ended in a T, which required making a choice. Finn stopped and listened.

Silence here, too.

This wasn’t going to work; if he chose wrong here, he might never find her – or his way back to the General. For a moment, he was perplexed about what to do – this way, that way, or back the way he’d come? He’d promised Master Luke to look after his family, but he also promised to stay with Rey no matter what.

Master Luke. If he were here, what would he do?

_The Force._

Finn had no idea what he was doing; but perhaps he didn’t need to know if he *believed*. He closed his eyes and reached out, seeking…

_This way._

Hallway and turn, hallway and turn; he stopped every time to update the map in his head, and then call her name as loudly as he dared, and then listen before moving on to the next.

Hallway, turn, hallway, turn; he stopped to add this turn to memory, and he heard her voice. She was still far away, out there in the darkness; how many more turns, he didn’t know, but he was almost there; he couldn’t make out what she was saying, but it was definitely her.

_Why come all this way just to talk to herself?_

Hallway and turn; this next hallway wasn’t blackness, though – dim light was falling into it from the very next turn. Relieved, but still angry, Finn walked quickly to the turn; there was no time for anger now; he’d simply retrieve her and get back to the others as quickly as possible.

But she wasn’t alone.

Two lights on the floor illuminated the space, casting just enough light to silhouette two figures there, but in the gloom, it was impossible to tell where one figure ended and the other began.

Puzzled, Finn stopped to listen.

“… but Dar Noaa says,” Rey’s words, “that it’s much more than that...”

“Who?” Someone replied; the voice was familiar.

An agonizing chill seized Finn, as if someone had just dumped ice down his back; for one horrible instant, he was lying face-down in snow…

_It’s *him*. He’s *here*, and *she’s*..._

He hardly felt his hand as it went for his blaster, then raised it; he saw movement as they sensed him there and turned together.

_No clear shot; I can *end* it - right here, right now - no one will blame me for killing them both…_

He saw Rey jump in front of the monster, putting herself directly between them, offering her life for his without hesitation. Something took control of his hand; it rejected his intention; it began to tremble, ruining his aim, but no outside force was acting on him.

He simply couldn’t do it.

……..

 

Not far away, back the hallways and turns that no longer existed in Finn’s memory, another confrontation was taking place.

Leia and Dar Noaa had just discovered a file that referenced something called the “Converter” when they sensed what was happening. Leia caught her breath sharply and instantly turned away from the workstation, but Dar Noaa caught her by the wrist, spinning her around to face him. Then he grabbed her other wrist to keep her there.

“Let *go*!” Leia cried.

“No,” he gripped her wrists even tighter. “There’s *nothing* you can do.”

“Let. Go!”

An invisible hand seized him by the throat; small but strong, it dug into his flesh with invisible claws. He was able to block her from choking him, but the only way to free himself of the nails digging into him would mean hurting her in the process. Leia was strong with the Force, but undisciplined, and right now, the passionate nature that he so loved about her was fierce and powerful.

And painful.

“Listen to me,” he forced himself to remain calm, even though tiny pools of blood were springing from his neck, “We *must* trust Luke; he said they had to stay together!”

“My son!” Leia pulled with amazing strength; the claws dug deeper. “He’s *here*! He’s here and Finn is ...”

“Don’t you think I *know* that?”

The pain in his voice startled her; she stopped struggling and looked at him. His face told her what this was doing to him; he knew he was about to lose Finn. Then she saw the blood and the invisible claws vanished as she realized what was happening.

“Noah...”

“Even if we ran all the way,” he shouted at her, “we wouldn’t get there in time to prevent *anything*; it’s out of our hands now.”

“I can’t just stand here,” she pleaded. “I have to try!”

“There’s nothing you can do there,” he insisted, “but there is something you can do *here*; I need your help! We must find the Converter.”

“The Converter?”

“If I’m right, that name is *literal*,” Dar Noaa knew he was right; he *had* to be right because he was *here* and if this wasn’t the source of the great machine, they were all doomed. And it felt right; he sensed it, so did Luke. “There’s a natural power source underneath this base; that power source is going to be used very soon to activate the great machine,” he had Leia’s attention now, so he put it out there; the hideous, unpolished truth, “and when that happens, everything *ends*, Leia! *Everything*!”

Leia the woman was beyond his reach, but Leia the General heard him.

“All right,” her words came out in staggered breaths as the General took control. “We find it; we *break* it; we give Luke the time he needs...”

“Yes.”

“Then,” she didn’t hold back the tears, but she did wipe them from her eyes, “let’s get on with it.”

Dar Noaa released her, then they both returned to the workstation.

………………… 

 

Not far way, in another direction, Hux was making his way carefully through the hallways, hoping he was going in the right direction.

Waiting ‘right here’ turned out to be a terrible idea, and it only took minutes before he was hearing everything in the dark. A low hum flowed around his feet; then he felt several fleeting vibrations that reminded him of the Finalizer when major systems came online; then silence. His could hear his heart beating much too fast; and the frightened labor of his own breathing was making it worse. It quickly became unbearable; so he decided that doing something was better than doing nothing and set out to find Ren.

Some minutes later, as he was telling himself that this was stupid, he heard him; not far away, Ren was talking with someone; sounded like a female…

He walked faster; a turn and a hallway later, he saw light coming from the next turn ahead and started to run.

 …..

 

In the hallway just beyond that turn, the confrontation had stalled.

Standing in front of Ren, Rey felt his hands on her shoulders and stiffened; she was not going to let him move her out of the way.

“Don’t hurt him, Ren,” she said softly without turning, “This is *my* fault.”

“As you wish,” he answered. “He knows he can’t hurt us. How is this your fault?”

“Master Luke told us to stay *together*,” Rey raised her voice so Finn would be able to hear what she was saying, “I gave him my word, then I broke it.”

“Why?” Ren asked loudly; loud enough for Finn to hear him clearly.

“Because,” Rey directed her words towards Finn, hoping one explanation could reach both men, “I was afraid that *this* was going to happen; only, I won’t let this happen. Do you *hear* me? I won’t let it happen! Not again.”

Silence.

Rey sensed that the silence from Ren was submission; Finn was no threat that night in the snow and he was no threat now; Ren had nothing to fear. And surprisingly, Ren had no malice towards Finn; none at all.

Finn, however, was boiling with both fear and malice; she could see his hand shaking.

“Get out of the way!” he shouted.

“No,” she took a step forward, making herself a larger target, “This is my fault, Finn; if you’re going to use that blaster, then use it on me...”

“*He* won’t let that happen.”

“You’re right; he won’t,” Rey took another step. “So, just put it down…” she gestured with her hand, “ ... and we’ll talk.”

Finn couldn’t move. She was right; nothing he did now would matter; he was already dead; the focused calm he sensed coming from the monster behind her assured him of that. But in that focused calm, Finn sensed interest, not intention; if Ren wanted him dead, he’d be dead already; but he wasn’t dead...

“Please, Finn, “ Rey pleaded.

Slowly, reason overcame his rage; common sense said to stay alive if he could. He took a deep breath and let his arm drop, pointing the blaster at the floor. Rey let out a huge sigh of relief, then walked to him quickly.

“Thank you,” she said, “Let me explain...”

Finn looked past her; Ren hadn’t moved at all.

“… Ren’s here because of *me*, Finn; I called him back.”

Finn's expression softened a tiny bit, revealing his confusion. He didn’t know what to ask first; they never trained him for *this*.

“Rey...”

Sudden movement caught Finn’s eyes; a light appeared at the far turn behind her and Ren, followed by legs in motion. Finn was already on overload; he didn’t think; instead, the years of mind-numbing practice drills that reduced reaction to reflex took over automatically.

His arm flew up and he fired the blaster.

Moving faster than Finn could see, Ren deflected the bolt with one hand; it curved sharply upward, missing Hux by millimeters before it slammed into the wall just above his head. Ren’s other hand pointed at Finn and ripped the blaster away from him. For several long seconds, nobody moved and nobody spoke, then Hux directed his light into the hallway to see who had just shot at him, and saw the girl who was standing there looking back at him.

“I *knew* it!” he proclaimed loudly.

Nobody was listening to him, though; the three beings in his view were standing very still.

“Do you *feel* that?” Rey asked.

Ren – and Finn, too – answered. “Yes.”

Rey’s eyes were searching fast; up, down, then at the open turns at each end of the hallway.

“*Spinners*!” she shouted.

They flew into the room in mass, flashing in the lights as they came; dozens of them; little ceramic seekers with hundreds of microscopic glass blades, spinning fast as they targeted every living thing in the area where a blaster bolt had been detected. Ren pushed them back, but as he did, Finn lunged forward in an effort to protect Rey and stepped right into one.

It bit into his thigh, drilling in deep; Finn fell to his knees.

All the other spinners smashed into the walls, drilled for an instant into the metal, sending sparks flying and igniting the aged plastic and composites inside them. One after another they burst open, sending thin fiery rivers of burning ooze down the walls.

Finn was going into shock; through the fog, he thought he heard Rey shout ‘We have to move, more will come!’, but he was too cold, too tired to move...

He closed his eyes, surrendering...

Suddenly, he felt a gloved hand take hold of his wrist roughly. He opened his eyes; he knew this glove.

“Get up!”

He knew this voice.

Finn looked up and saw Ren bending over him, lifting him.

Rey appeared on his other side and joined in; together they got him to his feet.

“Armitage,” Ren called out, “take my place here.”

Hux wedged himself in between Hux and Ren, taking on the load. Ren squatted down beside Finn and examined the wound in his thigh; he sensed the spinner easily because all the living tissue there was screaming chemically for help. The spinner was almost out of power; it was idle, but every time Finn moved, it would flutter in response, slicing deeper into him.

“This has to come out,” Ren said, “Hold him still.”

“No...” Finn resisted.

Ren looked up at Hux; their eyes met, and suddenly Hux remembered what he was bred for.

“*At-ten-tion*!” he shouted loudly at Finn’s ear.

The response was reflexive; Finn stiffened.

“We’ll have to move very fast, “ Hux explained quickly, then gave the command, “so you will *stand* for this, Trooper.”

“Yes, Sir!”

Finn’s conditioning wouldn’t hold him for long, so Ren got to work; he tore Finn’s pant open, exposing the wound; the blood on his gloves made them slippery, so he pulled them off and tossed them aside.

“Nobody move.” he instructed, putting his hand to the wound, focusing on the spinner.

It was over in less than a second; Ren leaned back and gestured; the spinner shot past his face on its way to join the others in the walls.

Finn hissed loudly though gritted teeth, but held steady.

“This will hurt,” Ren spread his hand over the wound and focused again; a single flash of red Force-lightning; the wound sizzled closed.

Ren and Finn groaned simultaneously; Finn sagged forward, Ren stood up.

“What now?” Rey leaned around Finn to ask.

“My Transport,” Ren replied.

“No...” Finn protested.

“I’m *not* leaving, traitor; my...” Ren tripped over the next word in his head, ‘mother’, but quickly recovered, “… the General is still in here. I  won’t leave without her.”

“Wait... he’s the *traitor*?” Hux didn’t seem shocked by the revelation; he was long past that point by now. “So you are!” He glared at Finn,  "FN2…?”

“They call me Finn now!” Finn snarled back with surprising ferocity, considering.

“They’ll be calling you *dead*,” Ren snarled in reply, “if we don’t get moving.”

They huddled together and walked; Ren followed, walking close behind them, protecting.

……… 

 

Not far away, Leia’s hand fell onto Dar Noaa’s arm, interrupting him; in order to stay focused on what he had to do, the Sith had blocked everything else out, including her.

“They’re on the move,” she said excitedly, “*all* of them!”

He breathed out in silent relief, then tapped the workstation screen in front of him.

“Look,” his voice had some optimism in it now, “This file might really be the one; it sounds like a diagram...” he keyed in the command as fast as he could, then growled softly at the slow response, “this system is a relic...”

The diagram appeared and he fell silent.

“Noah?” Leia shook his arm a little.

“Look at it.”

He sounded utterly crushed; she looked closer to see why.

It was the diagram they needed, but it was not what they wanted to see. The base had been placed at the the perimeter of the enormous hole that used to be the Goazon; there were miles and miles of it curving into a complete circle. And inside that narrow swath of construction, hundreds of of curved blocks appeared; they were linked together, connected, forming a circle within the circle.

All marked ‘Converter’.

There were a series of converging trackways dividing the central expanse into equal segments that fed into a large flat, circular object in the very middle of the space. The pattern looked old, very Empire…

Very Death Star.

“Do you know,” she whispered, “what this looks like?”

“I do,” Dar Noaa whispered back, “But this is no Death Star; it’s much worse. Old technology, abandoned here ages ago; restored, then updated in secret to use a new power source for a new purpose.” His voice grew louder as the Scitech in him got over the initial shock of it. “It’s beneath us; if we go down there, we might be able to do something with the segment directly below. Where are the young ones?”

“Moving away from us,” Leia replied, “I could… “

“Don’t call them back here,” Dar Noaa put his hand on hers, “This may a one-way journey.”

They shared a look; she nodded slightly. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it; she smiled as she pulled it away.

“Look,” she pointed at the workstation display, “there’s an access close by.”

They turned for the exit together.

“I just hope,” Dar Noaa said as they walked, “it’s not a ladder.”

 

……..

 

Not far enough away, the little group moved through the dark hallways and turns as quickly and quietly as they could. Despite recurring moments of wooziness, Finn managed to stay on his feet, partly walking on his own and partly being dragged on his toes by Rey and Hux.

Ren drifted back from them to expand his senses; their path ahead, and the path behind them as well, seemed empty; the base defenses were silent, and that puzzled him. Whether no more spinners came because there were no more of them still functional after so long, or because their program threshold was for weapons fire and not just motion was unknown; they simply were not there. That meant Ren wouldn’t have to deal with another firestorm, but it was worrisome because he didn’t know why. It did, however, give him the chance to pause for a second to search for his mother.

_Mother._

He ached inside; if he sent her a message, her reply would confirm that she was all right; but she was on the move, too, and he sensed that she was moving *down*. A lift? Stairs? Ladder? Rope? She could - and would - use any of those when necessary and his presence in her mind would be dangerously upsetting, so he decided to try again when they got to the Transport.

He caught up to the others and resumed his watch over them.

.........

 

A long struggle later, they walked up the ramp into the transport without incident.

Ren went directly to the cockpit while Hux and Rey maneuvered Finn into the officer’s quarters and deposited him on the sleep platform there. Rey remained there to make Finn as comfortable as possible, but Hux immediately went to join Ren in the cockpit.

“I heard you say we aren’t leaving,” he didn’t waste words, “So what happens now?”

“I said *I’m* not leaving, Armitage,” Ren was busy at the controls, “You are.”

“What?”

“I’m setting coordinates to someplace… else,” Ren’s fingers moved quickly, “The girl’s a natural; she’ll take you out of here; and when you get to where they're going, you will walk away and not look back.”

“What if I don’t?” Hux didn’t know why he’d just asked the question. “You won’t be there.”

“But *she'll* be there,” Ren smiled slightly at the thought, “and, believe me, she'll be in a mood to take your head off, so don’t give her an excuse to do it.”

When Hux didn’t answer, Ren looked over to make sure he’d been heard. Hux was looking at him with troubled eyes

“Starlight One,” he said quietly, “you saved my life.”

“That was about Snoke.”

“No it wasn’t.”

“No, it wasn’t” Ren pushed himself up from the pilot seat. “But this is no time for sentiment, Armitage; I have to go.”

“Ren...”

A sudden downward jerk interrupted Hux; the Transport rocked, knocking Ren back into his seat.

Another downward jerk.

“What are you *doing*?” Hux demanded.

“*Nothing*!” Ren lunged forward to the controls, “The platform; it’s going down with us still on it.”

Another downward jerk.

Ren’s hand found the stabilizer controls and fired the ventral thrusters; it was no way to launch something as heavy as the Transport, so the ship shuddered terribly against its own weight and rose from the platform slowly. Ren already had the engines online, though, and was able to steady and then level it enough to lift off and move away cleanly.

He sensed massive movement below, but even with the light of Jakku’s first moon falling into the great basin, it was still deep in shadow.

“Give me the lights,” he commanded.

Hux obeyed without hesitation; light flooded the space around them.

At first it was confusing; Ren saw the curve of the base; he saw the ramp and the platform they’d just left descend, then retract into shadow, and then he saw something moving up out of that shadow.

A solid metal wall was rising in front of the base; Ren looked side to side, both directions, and saw that the wall was formidable; it continued on until he could see no further. Their entry level was quickly lost behind it, then the next level, and then the one after that; the wall continued to rise until it met the metal ceiling above and stopped there with a thunderous screech.

The base had been sealed up tight, locking them out.

And locking his mother in.

 

…………..

 


	34. Chapter 34

-34-

Hyperspace.

Ever since the discovery of hyperspace, generations of poets tried to describe it, but no language anywhere was sufficient to express exactly what it was, or how it felt to be there. It was immense, but utterly unbounded; it was also outside normal space-time, and as such, its actual nature defied definition.

To travel through hyperspace was to be everywhere and nowhere at the same time; the fleeting images passing by that one could watch from inside a starship were merely illusions created in the observer’s mind in an effort to make some kind of sense out of it. Common belief was that the bright objects speeding by were stars, but there was little science to back that belief up. They probably were stars, but stars in Hyperspace and stars in normal space weren’t necessarily the same thing.

It was said that a only a master of the Force could perceive the true nature of Hyperspace, but gazing on the spectacle, Luke Skywalker didn’t know if he believed that.

The view out the Millennium Falcon’s cockpit was familiar, yet it was also always new; this trip had been uneventful until he’d felt his sister’s son passing through it. He was pleased, but puzzled, that Palpatine had let Ben get away unharmed; it was no act of mercy.

“Why would he do that?”

He was asking himself and also Maz Katana, who was sharing the view with him; she’d been carried up to the cockpit by Chewbacca, who deposited her gently into the empty seat, then left to get some sleep. She was very weak, but her eyes were still sharp and piercing, always seeking more.

“Palpatine,” Maz answered, “let the boy go because even now, he cannot bear the thought that his ultimate achievement will have no audience; he wants the last Skywalker to witness it.”

“After all this time and everything he’s done, that seems so… petty.”

“Conceit,” Maz sniffed contemptuously, “was always one of his weaknesses.”

Luke considered her statement; there was truth in it, but it was much more than conceit that directed Palpatine’s actions. The old monster was utterly obsessed with himself; relentless manipulation was his drug of choice and not even crushing beings by the billions on his way to absolute power could sate his appetite for it.

Years earlier at Endor, Palpatine wasted critical time lording over a forced duel between Luke and his father that not only resulted in Darth Vader’s turning back to the Light, but also in the destruction of the second Death Star. Luke remembered every minute of that terrible confrontation, including how intoxicating it was for Palpatine; the emperor fed on the fear and violence with evil joy until he was ecstatic from it, and his attention slipped away from everything else.

Luke felt sure that the same weakness may have been what saved Ben’s life, too; the opportunity to “play” with Ben’s head one more time must have been irresistible for Palpatine now that he was so close to his final solution. But then, why let him go when keeping him right there could prolong the pleasure? Luke had no answer for that; perhaps there was no answer to be had, because Palpatine was just too far gone for understanding.

“I agree,” he nodded, “Dar Noaa said something similar when we talked.”

“Yes,” Maz’s tone changed; Luke sensed the shift, “you talked with the Sith, before you came to us.”

“It was a matter of opportunity,” Luke explained, “Dar Noaa has insight; he knows what it is to be Sith because he *is* Sith. He was very helpful.”

“What did he say?”

“He said it was impossible to imagine how a Sith could aspire to become something so empty.”

“Empty?”

“For Dar Noaa,” Luke replied, “the concept of spending eternity as an entity devoid of feeling is horrific; the only word he could find to describe it was ‘empty’. Palpatine’s obsession with it mystifies him.”

“Listen to him, you did?”

“Yes.”

Maz gave a soft snort that implied disapproval, but said nothing; Luke remembered where he had heard that before – and not from Maz.

“It was you,” he reminded her, “who told me to listen to him, Maz.”

“Oh...” Maz seemed a bit foggy about it. She made a face that said she was looking inside herself for the memory. “Yes, I did say that, didn’t I? We’re so connected, it’s hard to see where the borders are now.”

“We” was she and Yoda, of course; as her life drained away, Maz’s connection to Yoda’s Force ghost became stronger. Soon there would be no separation at all; Maz would merge with the Jedi Master completely and her spirit would cross over, then her body would die.

“Then let Yoda speak for himself.”

The change was instant; Luke could see it.

“Speak for myself, I will,” Yoda’s voice replaced Maz’s. “It is unwise for a Jedi to trust a Sith.”

“Dar Noaa is no ordinary Sith,” Luke replied politely but firmly, “just as I am no ordinary *Jedi*; we have more in common with each other than either of us ever had with tradition. Both of us are what we are because neither of us ever fully surrendered our own judgment to ideology; we see the Light and the Dark, but we also see the Gray between them. It’s why we survived this long; perhaps it’s why we’re the only two left now; the last of our kind. It’s why we understand one another; and yes, I trust him.”

“He pulls you toward the dark side.”

“He does not, and I do not pull him. There’s no time for that.”

“There must be balance in the Force… “

“Right now, that’s secondary to *preserving* it,” Luke reminded his teacher, “The galaxy, the lives of billions of beings, and billions more yet to come, are all that matters now. I’ve seen what’s possible...”

“The future is always in motion,” Yoda reminded him now, “you cannot trust what you’ve seen.”

“No,” Luke felt something welling up from deep within, “but I can *want* what I’ve seen enough to fight for it!”

Yoda’s Force ghost stared expectantly at him from Maz’s face, as if waiting to hear more.

“Do you know what I was doing on Ahch’tu?" Luke asked."*Nothing*! My search for answers led me there and then gave me me *nothing*. So I stayed, mourning my failures; Luke Skywalker, the last Jedi, waiting for the end to come. Then the girl arrived and changed everything; she thought she was bringing me my father’s lightsaber, but what she really brought me was *hope*.”

The face staring at him brightened; the eyes encouraged him to continue.

“I didn’t see it at first,” Luke was telling himself now, too, “that lightsaber was something I’d put out my mind forever,” he looked at his mechanical hand. “It was my first failure as a Jedi.”

“No,” Yoda-Maz corrected him quietly; he could hear them both.“It was your first lesson. A hand lost, but so much learned.”

“Yes,” Luke curled the cold fingers into a fist, “I remember that now. Is that why you wanted me to have it so badly, Maz? So I would remember who I was?”

“Do you remember who you are?”

“Yes.”

“Who are you?”

Suddenly Luke realized it; the truth he’d known all along, but never allowed himself to recognize, was now blazing in his mind.

“I,” he announced, “am *not* the last Jedi.”

Then Luke paused and waited, but Maz-Yoda didn’t reply.

“The endless war between Jedi and Sith was never about balance,” Luke stated, “it was about *power*. Who has the most power? The answer is *no* one! The Force never needed *us* to balance it; it balances *itself*! And that balance can be found *between* the Light and Dark; that balance is the Gray.”

Luke paused again, expecting a reply to that statement for sure, but he got none.

“It’s not the Light in me, not the Dark in Dar Noaa,” he continued, “but the Gray in *both* of us that’s needed if there is to be a future for the galaxy; Maz saw that; that was why she sent for me...”

Maz-Yoda leaned forward, urging him on.

“… because Dar Noaa and I are not the last of our kind – we’re the *first*!”

Maz’s face changed; she took back control; her eyes sparkled and she let out a huge, contented sigh, as if the weight of the galaxy had just been lifted off her.

“That’s why,” Luke leaned forward now, “Palpatine fears me; he knows the future is *mine*.”

Maz grabbed Luke’s hands ans squeezed them tightly.

“Now,” she whispered, “you’re ready to make things right.”

………...

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, an eerie silence had fallen inside the new Goazon basin; the deafening roar of machinery in motion was gone, and now the only sounds within it were the soft hiss of breeze-blown sand and and faint echoes of a Transport’s thrusters firing.

“Third circuit starting… now,” Ren said, “Our point of entry, where the platform was.”

This was their third trip around the perimeter; Ren kept the ship low and in tight so Rey, who was sitting copilot, could get a close look at the structure and find a way to get through the wall. So far, it wasn’t going going very well; aside from thousands of vertical seams, the wall was featureless.

“I don’t get it,” Rey kept her eyes on the view as she spoke. “Empire works always have service access panels; and they always put them in logical places. I don’t see anything.”

“You think they’re hidden?”

“No,” Rey tried to say it gently. “I think they aren’t there to see. I think this wall was meant to be a once-and-done thing.”

“Keep looking.”

“Ren...”

“We will keep looking.”

“I agree, but let’s take a look at the spokes and that central thing next; we might find a way to get back in by going under.”

“Or I can just blow a hole in the wall back at the point of entry.”

“If you’re going to do that, you must warn the general about it first.”

Silence.

Rey knew why; she could see it in his face - guilt; paralyzing guilt.

“*Talk* to her; I’m sure she will hear you.”

Ren knew it, too, but this wasn’t like before; he’d said ‘I’m sorry’ as he was leaving then; he’d expected no reply and received none. He could think of a million reasons not to expect a reply now, but the truth was there was only one reason.

“I’m...” He wanted to tell her; if he could get the word out of his mouth to her, he might be able to get past it. “… afraid.”

“She *wants* to hear you, I’m sure of it. We had a talk about you.”

“You did?”

“She asked about Dagobah, then she asked about you. And I told her.”

“Oh.”

“Turn us around,” Rey urged, “back to the point of entry and land. Talk to her.”

Ren turned the ship around and started back.

……………

Not far away, Hux was finishing up with Finn’s wound; he’d been pressed into service when Rey left to join Ren in the Transport cockpit. Already feeling the rush of military-grade pain meds, Finn was alert and watching with interest as Hux flushed the singed flesh clean and carefully outlined the wound with the polycarb suspension, making a little ridge to hold the rest of it inside, waited a few seconds and then filled the wound.

“Lie still til this sets,” he ordered. “After that, you’ll be able to walk without too much pain.”

The polycarb became viscous, then stiffened with amazing speed, pulling on the edges of the wound as it sealed it.

“Ugh,”Finn grunted at the sting, “Good job… sir.”

“Umm,” Hux tossed the container back into the med kit, “I liked medical in training; I would have gone that way if I hadn’t been destined for...” he paused, because the words he was about to say had recently lost their meaning and seemed hollow now. “… a higher purpose.”

Finn didn’t reply; instead, he took a long, curious look at Hux because he honestly didn’t know what to make of him right now. Maybe Rey was right; maybe nothing was as it seemed at all...

“Do you have a *problem*, Trooper?” Hux asked; command voice.

“No, sir.”

…….

 

Meanwhile, back at the base, Leia and Dar Noaa had finished climbing down the ladder, and found themselves in a tight space.

Literally.

The converter segment chamber was not small, but the converter segment took up most of the space, making it necessary to squeeze around it in order to search for a control workstation. When they reached it, they were dismayed to find it was not only powered up, but online and active.

“This can’t be good,” Dar Noaa said.

He keyed in a command, then another, then another, in an attempt to make the display interactive.

The fourth attempt worked; the display produced a status report:

System: Pre-ignition: Sequence Nominal

“Pre-ignition,” Leia read it out loud, confirming his original analysis of the situation. “You’re right, this can’t be good.”

“It must need to build up to a particular power threshold before it can be...”

“Ignited?”

“That does sound bad, doesn’t it?” Dar Noaa replied with a purely rhetorical question. “Let’s see if it will tell us what it will do when that happens.”

It took a few tries before the display would give up its secret, but the flat screen was merciless when the right command was finally received; the animated simulation left no room for misinterpretation, the sole purpose of the Converter was to generate a powerful energy field that encircled the entire basin, turning it into a gigantic tube. There was no way to see how high the field could go, but its width was easy; the field was as wide as the base, which meant that Dar Noaa and Leia would be be inside it when ‘ignition’ occurred.

Suddenly, time became precious.

“If I can't shut it down,” Dar Noaa searched for technical files, “I'll break it.”

“Understood.”

 

Leia was standing quietly beside him, watching, when the first message arrived.

**The base is sealed from the outside. Some kind of wall. No way in.**

She caught her breath, and that caught Dar Noaa’s attention.

“What?” he asked.

“It’s Ben! He’s talking to me… he says the base has been sealed from the outside, some kind of wall, no way in.”

“Tell us what he sees.”

Leia sent the message.

“Wall is smooth, solid,” she relayed the reply, “goes all the way to the rim above. He wants to make a hole in it.”

“They need to get out of the basin right now.”

Leia sent the message; the reply made her wince.

“He says they aren’t leaving us.’

“Tell us,” Dar Noaa said next, “what he sees on the basin floor.”

Leia sent the message.

“It’s flat,” she repeated the answer as it came, “open, except for a series of channels that meet at a plate in the center, like spokes on a wheel. He’s going to check it now.”

…..

 

Minutes later, Ren eased the Transport down to a soft landing close to the edge of the metal plate, but did not power it down.

“As soon as I’m outside,” he rose from the seat as he instructed Rey, "take the ship out of here. I’ve already got the coordinates entered; someplace safe.”

Before she could answer, he left her; moving quickly to the opening entry, onto the still-moving ramp, then down it and onto the surface.

He stopped when he heard the sound of her feet landing on the surface behind him.

“I’m not leaving you.” she caught up to him and grabbed his arm.

“You have to go now.”

“*That* won’t work a second time.”

“Rey...”

“No. Nobody gets left behind.”

Sighing loudly in frustration, Ren peeled her hand from his arm and ran ahead, then made an impressive jump to get onto the surface of the metal plate. It flexed under his weight, revealing itself to be woven metal rather than welded. He walked directly to the center and turned around slowly, examining it all the way around.

Rey got busy at the edge, looking for evidence of an entry or access they could make use of, but the metal plate was as disappointing as the wall had been in that regard. Sound coming from the Transport reached her and she paused to to look back; Finn was off the ramp and coming toward them, followed closely by the one called Hux. By the time Finn reached her; his expression was strained and openly hostile.

“What’s he doing *now*?” Finn demanded.

“The base has been sealed,” Rey replied, “The general and Dar Noaa are trapped inside; we’re looking for a way to get back in.”

Finn twisted painfully to see what she was talking about, then turned back to her.

“We’re too far away,” he argued, “even if we find a way in, it’ll take forever to walk back there!”

Rey made a face; Finn was right; it would take forever, which made it pointless.

Then she remembered the caves.

“I have an idea,” she grabbed the metal plate sidewall, then looked at Hux, “Give me a hand up.”

She started to pull herself up and over the edge of the plate, and Hux supplied a strong push on her butt to propel her onto it it. She got to her feet and ran to join Ren at its center.

“Tell the general,” she panted excitedly as she arrived, “to look for any exit that might open into a cave; the whole region is riddled with them!”

Ren sent the message.

……

 

Below and inside, in the converter chamber, it was going too slow.

Dar Noaa had found some technical drawings and was searching them desperately when he felt Leia’s hand on his arm.

“Ben says there are caves; we might be able to find an exit,” she told him, “I’m going to have a look.”

“Yes, do that.”

She gave him an affectionate little squeeze, then made her way back to the entry and stepped into the dark tunnel beyond. It offered no clues which way to go first, so she closed here eyes the way Luke had taught her to years ago…

_Panicked voices in the dark, running, stumbling, screaming… this way…_

She opened her eyes and followed the voices into the darkness; as she moved deeper into it, the faint odor of vintage death reached her nose, but she kept going. The tunnel narrowed and then curved, and then came to an end at a massive door.

There, heaped together in a pile, were the dessicated bodies of the screamers. Closer inspection revealed Empire uniforms and insignia; these were those who never left, probably killed as they tried to escape. Leia had to step onto the pile to get past it and check the door; it was locked and cool to the touch. Leia closed her eyes again…

_This is it; the way out.  
_

When she returned to the converter chamber and squeezed her way back to Dar Noaa. He was no longer at the workstation, but beside it; he’d removed a large panel and was leaning deep into whatever lay behind it. Leia put a hand on his back.

“I think I found a way out.”

“Unfortunately,” Dar Noaa pulled himself out of the opening so he could see her, “it won’t do us any good.”

“Why not?”

“Not long after you left,” he answered, “I realized that this thing is Death Star and Starkiller *combined*; it’s going to pull the Force in, convert it to another kind of energy the same way Starkiller sucked in a star, and then it’s going to transmit that Force-whatever energy across the galaxy to the Hosnian system into the new dark entity waiting there.”

“If that’s true, how are they going to direct it? Where's the rest of the weapon?”

“This base is all there is,” Dar Noaa’s expression darkened, “as soon as the Force beam arrives, this converter will automatically open a conduit for it; straight through this planet.”

Confused, or perhaps unwilling to understand, Leia waited to hear more.

“It means total devastation for Jakku,” Dar Noaa made it real for her. “But Palpatine only plans to use it *once*.”

“There’s nowhere to go,” she sighed it out.

“I’m going to break it...” he touched her face as he said it, “… right now.”

He dropped his hand and began rooting through the pockets in his robe, brought out some credits and the metal bar and put them into her hand.

“Hold these...”

Then he searched again.

“Ah, here it is...”

He pulled his fist out and opened it to show her - his Kyber crystal.

“… I finally have a use for it.”

 

……

 

**Go. Get off the planet as fast as you can. We’re going to break this converter.**

 

Above and outside, the exploration of the metal plate had come to a stop.

Rey was waiting.

Ren had been standing with his eyes closed for several minutes; he was out there touching the Force and all she could do was wait. He was motionless, hardly even breathing. She turned away for a second to look back at Finn and Hux, who had managed to climb up and were now coming their way.

When she turned back to Ren, he was looking at her.

“Something's coming,” he whispered, “can you feel it?”

Rey shook her head.

“No.”

“You will,” he said sadly. “Please… leave now.”

“What’s coming?”

“I don’t... I can’t describe it,” he closed his eyes again, “It feels like... the *Force*...”

Rey looked up into the vastness of the night sky, trying to see what he was seeing.

“It’s already happening,” Ren murmured, “Kyber crystals, billions of them, connected...” He opened his eyes to join hers in gazing up. “The Holonet… and this is the Hub.”

Finn and Hux arrived just in time to hear those last few words; Hux reacted to the news instantly.

“This is the *hub*?” He sounded terrified. “We’re standing *inside* the hub?”

“Yes,” Ren replied, looking to Finn as he spoke. “Take Rey out of here.”

“Nobody,” Rey inserted herself between them and faced Finn, “is taking *me* anywhere, but you should go...”

“We should go,” Hux said emphatically, “right now, we should go. If we’re standing here when it activates, the radiation alone will *fry* us.”

Finn’s first thought was to grab Rey and drag her back to the Transport if necessary, but as he raised his hand to try, it suddenly refused to obey him. Confused, he looked down, then back at Rey and saw that her hand was raised and directed toward him.

“I said *no*."

Ren overruled her with a wave of his hand; Finn was free, but he didn’t repeat his mistake. Ren’s action infuriated Rey, though, and she faced him defiantly.

“*No*.”

“My… mother,” Ren said; hearing him say the word filled Rey with love and sorrow at the same time. “… says you have to get off Jakku; they’re going to break something; this whole place will break with it...”

“Then come with us!”

“They need *time*,” Ren looked up at the sky again, “Time they don’t have; I can help with that...”

“Then so can I!”

Finn had heard enough; he was about to try grabbing Rey again when he suddenly felt an urge to look up.

“You feel it *now*, don’t you?” Ren asked him.

“Yes,” Finn searched the sky, not know what he was searching for. “I feel it...”

“So do I,” Rey added. “We have to go, all of us...”

“It’s too late,” Ren stepped back from the others and spread his arms, as if measuring the diameter of the plate; he moved a step to the right to center himself on it and then, keeping his arms out, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes. “It's here.”

Rey, Finn and Hux all looked up, expecting to see something horrific, but there was nothing to see; they stared for a moment, then looked at one another, then looked at Ren for an explanation that was not going to come.

 

It started as soft crackling sounds rising from the metal plate, radio static and hiss; they could hear it distinctly, but saw nothing happening to make the sound. Then they heard the same sound overhead and then all around them, still soft, but growing louder.

The Transport screeched, then exploded; wreckage flew towards them, but struck, then bounced off an invisible barrier.

Deeply focused, Ren had seen it coming; if the incoming energy *was* the Force, it would instantly overload the Transport's targeting system Kyber crystals and detonate its armory. Calling the Force Lightning inside himself, he envisioned a dome of it forming over the plate, sealing it off, blocking everything, including the incoming energy, out.

At first, it was merely unpleasant, the energy arriving was weak and slid over and down the Force dome with harmless invisibility, but the the energy - and the effort required to keep it out – was increasing rapidly.

So was the pain.

As more and more energy slammed into Ren’s Force dome, it crackled and flashed; it became a firey cascade of red lightning that poured over it and splashed outward onto the basin.

He could feel himself being drained; he wasn’t strong enough…

Rey sensed it, too; and the thought that she was losing him broke fear’s hold on her. The plate was vibrating savagely, and she staggered the few steps necessary to reach him, to be with him, then she fell against him, put her arms around him and pulled herself in tight. Ren and the Force dome reacted to her touch instantly; he opened his eyes to meet hers and the red lightning flashed brilliant blue, then went red again. Both seemed stronger than before.

Fighting to stay on his feet, Finn was watching in helpless fascination; he saw Rey go to Ren; he saw them embrace; then he saw the power the two of them created when they came together.

_Together._

Luke Skywalker told him that they had to stay *together*.

_Together…_

_They need *me*._

It was an insane thought; he was as crazy as Ren; maybe even crazier; but Finn could feel the pull. It was irresistible.

Perhaps he’d always felt it; perhaps Ren did too, and that was why he’d spared Finn’s life; perhaps it was why Rey accepted him so completely from the start; why Leia and Dar Noaa took him in and why Luke Skywalker asked *him* to look after his family - because it was *Finn’s* family now, too!

 _If this is the end, we face it,_ he thought. _Together._

…….

 

Below and inside, Dar Noaa and Leia felt it.

Dar Noaa was stretched deep inside the open panel wrestling with one of the converter’s thermal oscillators*. The small clear cylinder was busy intercepting energy samples and stung his fingers as he worked to loosen it. In theory, if he removed it and quickly replaced it with his Kyber crystal, the crystal would divert the flow and cause it to fault, initiating an emergency shutdown of the unit and, hopefully, the entire circuit connected to it, without exploding.

Hopefully.

Leia was standing at the opening, ready to pull hard to help him out of there, if possible. She was surprised that she *kept* feeling it because she expected it to be over in an instant when it came. A split second later, she felt what was happening above in the Goazon basin; what was happening because of - and to - her son.

“Ben’s out there holding it *back*!” Leia shouted to Dar Noaa, “*Hurry*!”

As he yanked the cylinder out, then jammed his Kyber crystal in it’s place, Dar Noaa laughed; here was the leap of faith Luke Skywalker kept talking about; but the Jedi wasn’t here to see it.

“Now!” he shouted. Leia Pulled.

As son as he cleared the opening, Dar Noaa grabbed her and they dove for the floor together.

 

Inside the converter, the Kyber crystal vibrated, then rang out like a bell; the converter shuddered, then split wide open like a flower in bloom as a column of brilliant white energy emerged from the spot where the Kyber crystal had been and sliced upward, through the converter, through the ceiling. It surged through the construction, filling one level after another, then burst through the walls and flowed out in both directions. Moving at almost the speed of light, it completed the entire Goazon circuit in an instant, vaporizing the metal wall. And then flowed out onto the basin, flooding it, speeding toward the metal plate at its center where another leap of faith was being taken…

..............

 

Finn was walking.

He made his aching leg carry him a few more steps; when he got there, Rey and Ren opened their embrace to pull him in. The energy cascade surrounding them flashed yellow, then red again; brighter and stronger than before.

They were holding on, holding it back, when the energy wave from below arrived.

It crashed against the red cascade, expanding up and out like a bubble; first pushing the inflow up, then pulling it back into itself, absorbing it, until color could no longer define it and the red vanished.

White. Pure, white, immeasurable... *absolute* power.

It was like a living thing; it would not be contained; it sought freedom; so it flowed toward the only conduit available.

Ren.

For an instant, he had what he needed.

And in that instant, Ren saw everything; the galaxy struggling to hold onto existence as Palapatine’s great machine sucked it dry; the billions of Kyber crystals in the Holonet connected, enslaved to a soulless machine that sent the Force his way.

So he sent it *back*.

And then, everywhere that the Force was captive or constrained, Ren set it free.

From one end of the galaxy to the other, every Kyber crystal obeyed his will; in some places, it came only as a sudden outage of the Holonet; in other places, it came as mysterious explosions, totally vaporizing moons and asteroids without warning. In the Hosnian system, a nova appeared and then vanished like a puff of smoke.

 

And then, on Jakku, the Goazon basin fell silent.

 

…..

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * There are thousands of little throw away terms in Star Wars that really irritate me, and 'thermal oscillator' is one of them. I couldn't stop myself from throwing it in just because.


	35. Chapter 35

-35-

 

It was night’s end.

The sky slowly brightened from deep blood-black to blue-black, then to shadowy gray and, one by one, the stars were lost to the growing light. All too soon, the colors of dawn would appear on the horizon to announce the rising sun and a new day.

The air over the Goazon basin was cool and still and heavy with a strange, unsettling odor; and it would have been silent were it not for Poe Dameron. He was standing on the ridge, not far from the Visitor, looking down into the shadowy depths and arguing with Dar Na.

“We’ve waited long enough,” his voice almost cracked as he argued, “daylight’s coming! Whatever happened down there is *over*, and I’m going back!”

“He will send for us.” Dar Na replied.

“Maybe he *can’t*!” Poe snarled. “When he told us to wait, he had no idea what was going to happen. We need to get down there; they could *still* be alive...”

The words hit Dar Na hard; he let out an anguished cry and almost grabbed Poe by the neck, but managed to stop himself short of contact, his open hands hovering just above Poe’s shoulders. Regretting what he’d just said, Poe raised his own hands in front of himself in a sign of submission.

“Forgive me,” he whispered apologetically, then he offered up the truth. “If I stand here any longer I’ll go crazy; so will *you*!”

Dar Na pulled his hands back, then let them drop to his sides; after what they witnessed last night, it seemed impossible that Dar Noaa and the others had survived, but he wanted to believe what Poe was saying. Surely, it could not be disobedience to return without being summoned in order to search for them now.

The conflict resolved, he regained his composure and tapped Poe gently on the chest with his fist.

“You are right,” he said, “We go.”

At that, Poe turned and started back to the ship as fast as he could go on the now unstable rock of the ridge; Dar Na quickly overtook him and the lead to get them back. When they reached the ship and raced inside to the cockpit, they found that Viz had anticipated their decision and was already running through a pre-flight check.

 

………

 

Far below and under, in what was left of the converter chamber, underneath one of the ragged metal panels that had peeled apart the night before, Leia Organa had just opened her eyes.

She was in his arms.

He’d wrapped himself around and over her; his head was resting on her collarbone and she felt his breath on her neck.

He was alive!

She started to cry, and that woke him. He raised his head just enough to look at her and she saw his eyes glowing fiercely in the dark.

“You *did* it!” she whispered, “and we’re not dead!”

“I know,” he whispered back, “because my back hurts.”

“What?” she reaching around him, feeling, but stopped when her hand felt something wet and he groaned at her touch. “Oh, Noah!”

“It’s nothing,” he told her. “A few burns; they will heal.”

She wriggled until she was able to put her lips to his and kiss him. He closed his eyes; any time now, she would remember the others, but until then, he was content to be kissed. Fate, destiny, luck, whatever; he didn’t give a damn which it was; he didn’t give a damn how much his back hurt, either; all that mattered was that she was alive and he was with her.

“Can you move?” she asked.

“Yes,” he replied, “It’ll be tight, but I think if we go slow, we can work ourselves out from under.”

They worked together, then individually, to free themselves; lying on their backs and using their hands and feet to move; feet first, then legs, then bodies, and then finally their heads emerged from beneath the metal panel. Dar Noaa sat up immediately, but Leia needed a minute to rest from the effort; and she was worried.

“Are you all right?” she asked.

“Yes.”

That was all he said; then he waited. They had overcome the first obstacle, and now that she was free of it, Leia would start thinking ahead  and she would remember. It was quiet for a few more seconds, and then her heard her catch her breath.

“Noah…!”

“Don’t *think*, not yet,” he put his hand gently under her chin, then quieted her with a finger to her lips. “We don’t know anything. First things first; we find a way out of here,” he took his hand back and felt around for spot where he could press against the floor and push himself up to get to his feet, then held his breath as he shoved off so she wouldn’t hear how much it hurt. As soon as he was up, he leaned over to extend her his hand. “Get up.”

Grateful to let someone else make decisions for her for once; Leia took his hand even though she barely needed his aid. Something terrible had happened; she didn’t know exactly what, but she knew her child was out there where it happened and she had to find him.

She *had* to; she could feel him, but he was fading...

They squeezed beside the wreckage, along the wall of the chamber to the entry. When they reached it and stepped out into the tunnel they’d used to get there, they discovered that it no longer had a ceiling; the upper floors of the base were completely gone. Dawn had come to the Goazon basin and the light was just finding its way down into the depths, still dim, but enough to see that a way up no longer existed, at least, not in the conventional sense. The ladder they’d come down was still there, but the floor from which it descended was gone and so, it seemed from their position, was anything they might even try to climb on, or to.

“We’re stuck down here,” Leia concluded.

“Where’s that door?” Dar Noaa asked, “Think it’s still there?”

“Let’s find out.”

 

……….

 

In another part of the galaxy, the Millennium Falcon was in the Coruscant system.

The planet itself dominated the view from the cockpit; and seeing it looking so big and bright against the darkness could have been very pleasant were it not for the noise. The Holonet was *dead* and the rest of the galaxy was screaming about it over any device capable of broadcasting at any frequency.The general hysteria worked in their favor; bombarded on all fronts, Coruscant’s usually diligent security network was overloaded and overwhelmed, so the Falcon slipped through the ID network without detection. And once it was in the atmosphere, the Falcon was quickly lost in and disguised by the incredible sky traffic congestion that Coruscant was infamous for.

After that, it became easier still.

Coruscant the planet was made up of two distinct ‘worlds’; on the surface, it was crowded, wealthy and fairly well-organized, but below that surface, it was another story entirely. Above, one needed registrations and clearances to land anywhere; below all one needed was credits or goods and someone willing to look the other way. And as the crowded wealth on the surface wailed over their non-functioning state-of-the-art devices, it was business as usual for the world below. Since the planet’s 'guts' were all based below surface, there were thousands of small commercial landing facilities there, where following rules and regulations was casual at best; and since almost nobeing above cared to think about the world below, there was little interest in who came or went as long as services weren’t disrupted.

Chewbacca had no trouble contacting a friend using the Falcon’s aged radio com, and it only took a few minutes to make the deal. It was pricey because all Chewbacca needed was a few minutes to offload a passenger.

No questions asked, of course; was a few credits more.

When he got back from paying the bill, Chewbacca found Luke sitting at the Dejarik table with some of the ship’s tools lying in front of him. Luke looked up to greet him, and at the same time, pulled the right sleeve of his robe down, almost covering his robotic hand completely.

“How does it look?” He asked the Wookie.

“How does what look?” Chewbacca asked back.

“Exactly what I wanted to hear you say.”

“Porka’s paid; you can leave whenever you’re ready.”

“Thank you.”

“Are you sure you want us to leave?”

“Completely.” Luke slid out from the table, looked at his sleeve one more time, then went to Chewbacca and extended his living hand. “You’ve done more for me than I could ever repay, Chewy, and I thank you.”

“What about Maz? You can’t leave without saying goodbye.”

 

Maz was still in the cockpit, sitting the copilot’s seat when Luke walked in; her eyes were half-closed, as if she was lost in a daydream. She turned her head slightly in his direction.

“So it’s time,” she said with quiet resignation.

“Yes.”

“You were always my favorite, you know; I’m sorry I failed you.”

“You didn’t fail me, not at all.”

“Sidius is the Darkness; he will show no mercy.”

“I know; in fact, I’m *counting* on it.”

Opening her eyes wide, Maz searched Luke’s face intently for a second, then she gave him a sly smile.

“Something from the Dark side, is it?”

“No, something from the Gray.”

Luke came close, then leaned over to give her a gentle kiss on the forehead.

“Goodbye, Maz,” he whispered, “and thank you… for everything.”

Then he left, passing Chewbacca, who had just come through the cockpit entry, as he went.

“Ah,” Maz greeted him, “There’s my boyfriend! Sit with me.”

Chewbacca went to the pilot seat and flopped sadly into it like a discarded toy, whining softly with frustration.

“No,” Maz wagged a finger at him. Suddenly energized; she straightened herself up as straight as she could and looked directly into his eyes, “There is something we can still do for Luke, if you’re willing...”

Her energy became his energy; Chewbacca’s eyes brightened and he straightened up, too, then leaned her way expectantly to listen.

“What would you say to taking a little trip?”

“Where to?”

“Not very far from here,” Maz’s eyes sparkled wickedly as she spoke, “there’s an old friend I want to make things right with...” Her expression had changed; it was no longer weary, she looked positively fierce now. “… will you take me to Stardust One?”

Chewbacca smiled; her wish was his command.

 

………….

 

Far away, in another part of the galaxy, the fabled caves of Carbon Ridge had opened one of its many doors to Dar Noaa and Leia.

The route was dark and dry, the way was narrow, but smoothed stone beneath their feet told them that this cave had felt the touch of technology and that gave them hope that it might have seen service under the Empire and would actually lead them somewhere useful. And it did just that; a short but steep hike up brought them to an intersection with another, manufactured cave; a tunnel.

And at the far end of the tunnel, light. Daylight.

The angle was steep and they were feeling the effort, but the light growing brighter ahead gave them incentive and soon they arrived at an opening and a carved-out level space that overlooked the Goazon basin.

“Sentry post,” Da Noaa suggested, “probably from the early days of the excavation.”

There was no wall or railing; the space ended abruptly at open air and Dar Noaa grabbed Leia’s arm to keep her from the edge as she tried to see what she knew had to be out there. Holding her tightly, he looked, too; only over the edge and down.

Straight down.

He looked up; straight up, too. They could go no further.

He was digging his comlink out of a pocket to call the Visitor when he caught sight of something small and nondescript passing slowly in the distance.

“I told them to *wait*,” he complained.

Startled from the pull of what she could not see, Leia looked at Dar Noaa, then followed his gaze up.

It was the Visitor; the ship was following the curve of the basin’s outer rim; it must have already detected them there because it slowed, then corrected its course toward them before Dar Noaa could summon it.

 

In the cockpit of the Visitor, Poe and Dar Na were celebrating wildly; it seemed impossible, but they'd found Dar Noaa and the General. More accurately, it was Viz that found them – the ship did the work all on its own and Poe and Dar Na had been little more than passengers along for the ride.

The next part, though, would be on them, so they rushed to the entry to hook the cross cables up for sky anchoring.

 

…………….

 

As soon as she was aboard the Visitor, Leia went directly to the cockpit and touched the waveform.

“Scan the floor of the basin,” she commanded, “Signs of life.”

Dra Noaa was right behind her; he’d waved off Dar Na’s protest that he go to their quarters and have the burns on his back attended to. Both the young Sith and Poe followed behind, each asking a stream questions that quickly became only one.

“Where’s Finn?”

“We got separated,” Leia watched the display as the ship added details, “The last we heard, he was out in the basin with Rey and ...” The display presented an eerie image; strange twisted formations that resembled enormous fallen tree branches criss-crossed the entire basin like a crudely woven mat, all radiating from a central object. “… What are those?”

“Rrefractory tubules,” The ship replied.

Dar Noaa could hardly believe what he was hearing; their presence, their size, meant that an incredible kind of energy had been released there. That energy had to be so intense that it vaporized every particle of sand or stone it encountered directly and melted the particles surrounding them. Like a lightning strike, it took place in milliseconds, and afterwards, the melted sand would solidify again, creating a grotesque tube of glass that marked where the energy had traveled. Cold now, the tubules woven across the Goazon had the diameter of tree trunks and stretched for kilometers, silently testifying that something absolutely horrific had taken place there.

He couldn’t make himself say that out loud, though, and Leia wasn’t listening to him anyway.

“Take us to the center.” Leia commanded.

Dar Noaa said nothing; there was no stopping her from going directly to the last place she knew her son to be, and the best he could do right now was stay close, keep his mouth shut and support her any way he could.

The display image indicated that the metal plate Ben told her about was still there, and from this distance, it seemed intact.

It also seemed to have a halo around it; the basin floor immediately surrounding it looked like a glistening beach in the morning light. Having seen the scale of the tubule forest, Dar Noaa quickly determined that the beach was the result of direct and continuous energy pounding it, creating tubules then blasting them out of existence repeatedly, then stopping abruptly, leaving behind a beach of fused glass.

Nothing could have survived that.

The ship was approaching the center fast, so he moved closer to Leia and put an arm around her because the display image of the central plate was rapidly becoming more and more detailed.

“*Look*!” she cried out excitedly.

The metal plate was not only intact; it looked *untouched* - and there was something on it.

Four featureless lumps that became figures, then bodies, and then *survivors*! One was standing, moving, waving frantically; two more were sitting not far away, but one of them was bent over, holding the fourth, who was stretched out flat, long arms and legs lying motionless…

“No...” Leia murmured.

The word came out of her like a prayer, in a single, whispered breath. Holding her close, Dar Noaa got Poe into the pilot seat with one look and silence ruled the cockpit for the next few minutes as Poe guided the ship down to make a landing directly on the plate and as close to the little group on it as possible.

The instant she felt the ship make contact, Leia pushed herself free from Dar Noaa’s embrace and bolted for the entry, pounded the activation panel repeatedly until the door slid open, then jumped directly onto the plate. Her heart was pounding as she ran across it, past a fair-haired stranger, heading straight for Finn and Rey.

And Ben.

As she arrived at the spot where they were, Leia saw that Finn and Rey were looking at her with tired but happy faces and their eyes were glowing ashen red, like embers from a dying fire. For a second, their eyes held her captive; but then Rey looked down, away from her, toward the face she was cradling in her arms and Leia followed her lead.

Seeing Ben there, pale, drained - *empty* - took what little strength Leia had left and she crumpled like tissue paper, falling first to her knees, then slumping back onto her heels.

“He made things right,” Rey said without looking; she was petting his hair as she talked. “He did it for you...”

Leia put out her arm, reaching toward the girl who loved her son in what she knew was a futile gesture of comfort. Rey looked up, away from Ben, first at Leia’s hand, then at Leia’s face.

“... so, *please*,” she begged, “don’t be angry with him when he wakes up.”

“What?”

“When he wakes up,” Rey repeated, then added, “he’ll need to eat. Right away. And after that...”

Leia lurched forward, crawling on her hands and knees as fast as she could.

Planting herself beside the two of them, she touched his face and felt the warmth there. First joy, then determination and then tremendous power surged through her; she knew what she had to do and she had the strength to do it. Closing her eyes, she touched the Force, calling it, drawing it in, then passing it on into him with all the love she had.

He moved slightly, then he moved a little more, then he opened his eyes. They were ashen red, like Rey’s and Finn’s, and they were darkening, coming back to life.

He was looking her way, but didn’t seem to see her there.

“Ben?”

Silence.

“Ren?”

That did it; he squinted to get a good look at her.

“Mother?”

 

Ren said it without hesitation this time; for the moment, the fog in his head protected him from thinking about it. She was here; so was Rey, and they looked so beautiful together that he wanted to stay this way forever; but the silence was calling to him.

Leia sensed it, too; but she would not let him go. Never again.

She lowered her face close to his and kissed him, then she started to sing very quietly, making him work to hear her.

“Mirror bright, shines the moon...”

By the time Dar Noaa and the others arrived with the Visitor’s medical kit; he was wide awake.

 

………….

 

Far away, in another part of the Galaxy, on Coruscant, the pandemonium that resulted from the sudden and permanent disappearance of the Holonet had reached pandemic proportions.

In the Financial District, Security troops were called in to hold back the hysterical crowds and ensure safe passage through for administrators and executives that had good reason to fear for their lives.

The Federal District was just as bad, but in the chaos there, no one took notice of Luke Skywalker as he made his way through the crowd and then slipped through a service door that led to a service tunnel that led to what was once the Jedi Temple, then the Imperial Palace, and now was home to thousands of bureaucrats, all of which were fighting a losing battle to retain any kind of order. Luke navigated the maze of offices easily; beings he passed on his way either failed to see him at all or instantly forgot seeing him once he’d passed them by.

The old Jedi Temple was long gone, of course; except the Spires. The temple and the ground beneath it had been heavily modified by Palpatine, and then by the Republic, a generation ago, so all that remained visible of the original structure were the four corner Spires that had been judged too decrepit to merit the expense of re-purposing again.

Up there, in one of them, Luke knew he would find Palpatine.

And Darth Sidius had made the search much too easy.

As soon as the Holonet failed, the Force became clear and open again; but there were few disturbances to be felt there. One great disturbance traced back to Jakku, lesser disturbances traced back to numerous locations throughout the galaxy, including the Hosnian system, one traced back to a location not far from Coruscant and one traced back to the planet itself, where a dark and powerful Force-sensitive was raging uncontrollably.

Luke had no need to search further; Palpatine was *this* way; Luke could see a dark silhouette standing on the open meditation space at the very top of one of the Spires.

The old monster was expecting him.

 

……….

 

Darth Sidius turned from the view when he sensed Skywalker’s arrival in the meditation space.

“So, Jedi,” he addressed Luke with a coolness that belied the fury inside, “You are not as dead as I was told.”

“Neither are you,” Luke replied.

“Your sister’s child surprised me,” Palpatine studied Luke carefully as he spoke, “He deceived me with the truth. I knew he was hiding something; I thought it was the girl, but it was you.”

Luke watched Palpatine take several small steps, not in his direction, but certainly directed somewhere; but he didn’t make a counter move. Instead he folded his hands behind his back and waited. Palpatine noticed and turned slightly in response.

“I know why you’ve come,” Palpatine said, “You think it’s your destiny.”

Luke didn’t reply.

“Do you really believe,” Palpatine took a step toward him. The gesture had no effect, causing him to stop. He raised his hands, then pressed them together at the fingertips. “That *you* can destroy me?”

“You believe it.”

Palpatine’s fingertips pressed harder; Luke had struck a nerve.

“You are mistaken,” Palpatine replied.

“As are you,” Luke said back with a touch of contempt,“about a great many things.” He took a single step forward, coming closer to Palpatine’s lethal fingers. “You were mistaken about my *father*; you were mistaken about *me*, and then you were mistaken about my sister’s son. Your mistakes kept you from holding the Empire then and they keep you from holding the galaxy now.”

Palpatine’s face tightened, but he didn’t reply.

“Want to know your biggest mistake of all?” Luke knew his words could cut deeper faster than any weapon. “You simply couldn’t leave us alone. Had you stayed dead to us, had you kept out of our lives, your great machine would still exist, and your dream of 'absolute' power would finally be achieved; but you just *couldn’t* stop yourself, could you?”

Silence. Luke could sense the fury that was boiling in the old monster now.

“Now it’s gone, *all* gone,” Luke struck again; this time aiming much deeper, “You’ve lost it *all* because of a Skywalker.”

“I’ve lost nothing but time,” Palpatine snarled viciously, “And I have an *endless* supply of that.” The fingertips flew apart; he pushed his arms out, hands open, fingers stretched wide; blue sparks snapped between them as he called forth Force-lightning. “You do not.”

This was the instant Luke was waiting for; he brought his right arm forward, and as he did, his lightsaber slid from its hiding place inside the sleeve of his robe, straight into the palm of his hand. The green plasma blade ignited with his touch; he struck true, slicing through Palpatine’s wrists; the evil hands were still crackling with blue when they hit the floor.

For a second, Palaptine stared at the smoldering stumps, then he looked at Luke and laughed.

“Fool!” he shrieked, then closed his eyes, focusing, “You can’t destroy me, but I can destroy *you*.”

Suddenly the meditation space around Luke flickered, then went black. It was only for an instant, but when light returned, he saw that he was no longer on the meditation space; he was someplace else. His lightsaber was still blazing; Palpatine was still there, standing right where he was before - but now the two of them were inside a small chamber with glowing red, crystalline walls.

And nothing else.

There was no door, no windows; just crystal above and below and all around.

“Want to know where you are?” Palpatine goaded him, “You’re standing within the Heart of Darkness; far beneath the Sith Shrine, where it’s been since the beginning of time. Not even your Jedi master Yoda suspected its existence.”

“You folded space,” Luke replied. “Impressive.”

“Can you *feel* it?”

“Yes.”

Luke could feel it; he was standing inside an enormous *hollow* Kyber crystal. The glow of Palpatine's influence was pulsing slowly through it like blood through an ancient heart.

“There is only *one* way in,” Palpatine informed Luke with evil glee, “and only one way *out*. I’m going to leave you here to meditate on that...”

Before he could finish the sentence, Luke's lightsaber flashed green underneath his chin, severing Palpatine's head. It dropped away from the body, then struck the crystal floor below with a muted thump. The body lingered, trembling slightly, then toppled over, landing next to the head like a bag of discarded bones. The crystalline walls around Luke went dark; leaving only the green glow of Luke’s lightsaber to illuminate the scene.

Luke stood there for a long time.

Palpatine’s body was dead, but it was possible that his spirit continued; somewhere beyond reality, Darth Sidius could be busy licking his wounds and already spinning another web. But if that was true, it would be a very long time, even by Palpatine’s clock, before he could be a threat again, and that meant that the Skywalker family would have plenty of time in the future to plan for it.

 _The future is always in motion,_ Luke thought, _but it’s *mine*._

Palpatine died without hearing about his final mistake; he never imagined that a Jedi would come at him with an old Sith lightsaber trick up his sleeve. And he didn’t take into account that all those years Luke spent searching had rewarded him with a copy of ‘Absolute Power’, the text that taught him about folding space in Palpatine’s own words.

It turned out that folding space locally was easy because space didn’t move very far in an instant if the distance was small enough; Luke had  been doing it for years, popping from one spot to another on Ahch’tu, startling the island’s resident animals every time.

Luke closed his eyes and focused; then he was gone, leaving Palpatine’s body - and the past - behind.

 

…….

 

Not far away, in the charred and shattered remains of Starlight One, Supreme Leader Snoke was waiting.

He was still rehearsing his speech when the disaster struck and he was plunged into total darkness. He tried summoning assistance, but the comlink was as dark and dead as the lights, so he had no choice to stay where he was and wait.

That was a long time ago, and now he was freezing in the dark.

Frustration became anger, then outrage, then fear, as he waited, growing more terrified with every frosty breath. Where were his subjects? Why didn’t they come? Soon the passive airflow would go still and he would suffocate...

He was so numb from cold that when he heard the hiss of the frozen gas wall that sealed him in sublimating away, he wasn’t able to shout a command for them to hurry.

But suddenly, a light appeared, illuminating the last of the gas as it vanished.

“Finally!” Snoke croaked loudly “What took you so long?”

A short figure, shadowed behind the glare of the light, entered the chamber. It walked directly to Snoke and put the light to his face, blinding him.

“It has been a long time,” Maz Katana said, “hasn’t it… Snoke.”

“*You*!”

“You remember me,” she answered. “Good.”

“What do you want?”

“*Justice*.”

One hand held the light as Maz stretched out the other, revealing a small, round object.

“What’s that?” Snoke asked nervously.

“*This*?” Maz teased from the shadow above it, “It’s a gift for you, from Leia Organa; it's a souvenir from one of her adventures, on Tatooine, I believe it was. It’s called a thermal detonator." She fingered the detonator's pin lightly, then slipped one finger through the ring. "It’s old now, like you and me... and like you and me, it’s come to its final hour...”

“*Wait*, Maz,” Snoke pleaded, “We can make an arrangement; we’ve done it before. I have wealth, I have power, I’ll pay whatever you ask...”

“I warned you,” she passed sentence on him, “that one day, it would come to this; now you’re going to pay for what you did to Anakin, for what you did to Luke and Leia.... and afterward, in death, I will still be there, making sure that you pay for what you did to *Ben* for eternity.”

Smiling contentedly, Maz lifted her finger.

The sentence was carried out.

 

Just far enough from Starlight One to be out of danger, The Millennium Falcon was drifting in space, waiting.

As he watched the explosion from the Falcon’s cockpit, Chewbacca roared out a sorrowful farewell to his oldest friend. Then, with R2D2 as copilot, he turned the ship away from the destruction, and set course for Coruscant, where Luke Skywalker and the future were waiting.

…….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are two chapters left in this story to tell.
> 
> What could come after that; well, let me know what you think...


	36. Chapter 36

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A very short chapter just to keep pace; first, real life got in the way and then, well... you'll see...
> 
> The good news, or bad news, depending how you see it, is that there are STILL two chapters to go after this...

-36-

 

The galaxy was safe, but the beings on its many worlds would never know what really happened on the Goazon and what it meant for them. They would never have believed it, anyway, so everyone aboard the Visitor agreed that there would be only one story told.

The simplest explanation was the best choice because it, from a ‘certain point of view’, was the truth: underneath the Goazon, a long-abandoned secret Empire-era base suddenly – and inexplicably – exploded, leaving behind an enormous crater and revealing the existence of a previously undiscovered and completely new energy source.

Jakku, like the Goazon, would never be the same.

And there would be absolutely no mention of the little group of beings that were there at the time, either, because no good would ever come from revealing that fact.

 

The Visitor was far from the Goazon; as soon as they had everyone on board, Dar Noaa directed Poe to set course for the North, and they fled the region before the locals arrived to see what all the commotion had been about. Now the ship was nestled near a small outcrop of stone that rose from frost-covered tundra that saw only a few hours of daylight, leaving it desolate, cold and uninhabited.

It was a vital, but temporary, sanctuary in case the First Order was still in the Jakku system; someplace where the Visitor could take on desperately needed water by vacuuming up frost. There were now eight occupying a vessel designed for six, so the ship was rapidly being depleted of resources, especially the water needed for recharging both batteries and crew. Anyone who could sleep was asleep, so the ship was quiet, except in Leia Organa’s quarters…

_There was no way out now._

“ _I know what I have to do,” His eyes were burning with tears as he said the words, but he wouldn’t let them escape. “… but I don’t know if I have the strength to do it. Will you help me?”_

“ _Yes. Anything.”_

_He held out his lightsaber; Han Solo’s hand joined his on the hilt. He had to do it…_

_Then it was done._

“ _Thank you.”_

_He felt nothing as his dead father reached out and touched his face; nothing as those eyes searched his; and then nothing as he sent the body falling away with a small push._

_But then he felt *her*._

_Catching his breath, he looked up and saw her standing there. She was not alone this time; someone was standing beside her; the stranger’s glowing yellow eyes were fixed on him._

“ _I sense no deception,” the stranger said, “this memory is real.”_

“ _Thank you, Noah.”_

_He wanted to cry out; he wanted to run; he wanted to die…_

 

It was over.

Released from the vision, Leia sighed deeply, but she was past tears; now she knew how it happened and why.

“It will be awhile before he comes out of it,” Dar Noaa said. “You and I must talk… privately.”

“I want to be here,” Leia looked down at her son, “when he wakes up.”

“Only a few minutes,I promise,” he told her. “Rey’s here; she will call us when he wakes.”

“All right.”

Dar Noaa didn’t take her very far; as soon as they were in the corridor and the entry to her quarters closed behind them, he stopped her.

“Now that you’ve seen... it,” He spoke slowly, considering every word, “if you want to… *act*, it should be done right away.”

“Act?”

“Whatever you wish done, I will do.”

“Then you will do *nothing*.”

“Good.”

“Did you actually think that I...”

“No,” he pressed her hand with his, “But I had to ask; to be sure. Are you all right?”

He’d been holding her hand the entire time, not just to share the vision with her, but to support her; he’d taken a great risk even suggesting the idea, but he knew it would only be possible to get in and see while Ren was so weak that he could not resist. They’d heard both Rey’s and Finn’s versions of what happened at Starkiller base, but for Leia to truly understand it, Dar Noaa wanted her to see it through her son’s eyes. It was cruel, but another opportunity might never come to determine how much of a danger Ren posed to them all now.

“I will be,” Leia answered. “I just need time to think it through. What do you think?”

“I think that’s not a fair question.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m *Sith*," he reminded her, "my perspective is different from yours.”

“That’s why I’m asking. Do you think he’s dangerous?”

“I’m *sure* he’s dangerous," Dar Noaa spoke without any hesitation; it was the truth, and she had to accept it, "but not now - and not to us. Something extraordinary has happened to him, and to Rey and Finn, too; until we’ve had time to evaluate how that has changed them, we must be cautious.”

“With his father… he was so… I couldn’t recognize him, Noah; he was a *stranger*. ”

“He’s been sick for a very long time.”

“It’s my fault," Leia's voice became quiet, "I *begged* Han to bring him home. If I hadn’t done that...”

“It’s not your fault," Dar Noaa countered, sensing the danger that guilt held for her right now, "it was an unfortunate chain of events that were set in motion years ago by enemies you knew nothing about.”

“But I did know," Leia confessed, "I always knew… I felt it.”

“Punishing yourself for the past will change nothing; you have to look ahead now.”

 .........

In Leia’s quarters, Rey found enough room for one hip on the sleep platform, so she was half-sitting beside Ren as she kept watch over him. His face was pale and starvation thin again, but when she put her fingers against his throat, his pulse was strong. He reacted to her touch by turning his face toward her hand; she rewarded him with a gentle caress, and then leaned down and kissed him lightly on the lips.

“They’ve gone; “ she whispered. “You can wake up now.”

“No...”

“But you’re hungry,” she suggested, “You have to eat.”

“Yes...”

“So open your eyes.”

“I’m afraid...”

“You don’t have to be,” she cooed against his lips, “not any more. You were stronger than Darth Vader could ever be, in so many ways; and braver too; what you just did for your mother...”

“She hates me.”

“She loves you!” Rey pulled herself away and up, “She hasn’t left your side since she found us; right now she’s just outside the door waiting for me to call her back.”

“She saw… she knows what I did...”

“Yes, she does; but she knows *everything* now, and that matters, Ren.”

“I killed my father...”

“Yes, you did. You can’t undo that...” Rey paused at that ugly truth, but only for a second, “... but you can learn to live with it. So can she; she can learn to live with it because she wants *you* to live. Talk to her; I know you want to.”

He opened his eyes.

 

………...

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Coruscant, Luke Skywalker arrived at the “if you survive” rendezvous location and found the Millennium Falcon waiting there. The reunion in the cockpit quickly became somber as Chewbacca told him what Maz had done.

“She wanted her death to matter,” the Wookie explained in soft mews, “she made sure that Snoke would never harm another Skywalker.”

Luke took the news with sad acceptance; Maz’s gesture was a testament of her love for his family, but she never told him what she saw in Skywalkers that deserved such devotion, so he would never know. But Maz knew the Force; she never fully embraced it, but she touched it; and she bonded with Yoda so it was entirely possible that some quiet hour in the future, when Luke’s mind was calm and clear, Maz would visit and give him answers.

Luke was tired; he wanted to sink down into the seat and get some rest, but Chewbacca said there was a message waiting for him. Since no one knew he was on Coruscant, that was surprising.

“Let’s see it.”

Chewbacca activated the holographic display and cued up the waiting message; a tiny image of Gial Ackbar formed. His moist flesh and firmly-fixed eyes defied expression, but his body language and tone of voice were clear; something was wrong.

“Luke,” the image addressed him, “the Resistance sent news of your return, but you left before I could safely contact you. Listen carefully:

“The First Order attack on the Hosnian system crippled the Republic; an Emergency Council was formed here on Coruscant to restore order and prepare for war, but it consists mostly of Coruscanti bureaucrats and Guild directors.

They wish you to join them here as an adviser. Do not accept; *stay away* from Coruscant!

There are already huge conflicts among the Emergency Council members; some wish to fight; some wish to attempt peace negotiations with the Order. Some are even calling this an ‘opportunity’ to embrace the idea of a profitable future as *allies* of the Order. Fear and self-interest are the rationale for everything they say and do. Trust is non-existant. I fear that the situation will quickly decay into factional infighting, leaving us at the mercy of enemies both without and within.Those of us regarded as outsiders here may soon be in grave danger.

I will send coded updates through the Resistance for as long as I can; I have trust in them, but I’ve had reports that they may have already been compromised; so be cautious. May the Force be with us.”

The holographic image flickered and vanished.

Chewbacca groaned loudly.

“You’re right, Chewy,” Luke agreed grimly, “Nothing ever changes, does it? Knock one monster down and a hundred more show up to fight over the carcass.”

“What about their offer?”

“I have other plans,” Luke said, “We’re going back to Jakku.”

 

……………….

 

In another part of the galaxy, on Jakku, a thin layer of frost had formed on the Visitor, adding to its disguise. Water ice on the embedded dust in its coating made it indistinguishable from the rocks even from nearby, and to any long-distance sensors, it was invisible. Not that it mattered, because at the moment, every vehicle capable of such scans was far to the south, scanning the Goazon basin, and the First Order seemed to be completely gone from the planet.

Inside the ship, the crew was divided; Poe was standing watch in the cockpit; Finn was resting in his quarters, watching with Dar Na as Hux tended Dar Noaa’s burned back; and in Leia’s quarters, Rey had just helped Ren to sit up because his mother entered the room.

He had to force himself to look her way.

Their eyes met, paralyzing them both for a very long time. Both of them experienced every emotion a being could feel; there was joy, then fear, then sorrow, then anger, then guilt; then all at the same time until one of them finally broke the unbearable silence.

“Ren.”

Leia tried to stay calm as she said the name; to hold herself back. Ben’s face, thin and terribly scarred, reacted to the name, confirming the fear she had already sensed there by looking down, away from hers.

“General.”

He replied quietly, without looking, in a tone of voice so hopeless that it almost broke Leia’s heart, but she held her ground against the sorrow. All she’d been thinking was that she had Ben back, but this man with her son’s face was a stranger; and not only that, this stranger was absolutely terrified of her.

_There will be no joyous reunion today…_

She walked over to where he was sitting and sat beside him; he stiffened.

“I want to thank you,” she told him, “for coming back, Ren. The galaxy is safe now.”

Her words were unexpected; he blinked, then struggled to find a reply.

“Are you… all right?” he asked.

“Yes. I am.”

Something in the way she said it caught his attention; he looked sideways.

“What about you?” she asked.

He wanted to tell her everything; how much he loved her, how much he’d missed her, and then how sorry he was, but the words wouldn’t come and he was starting to tremble. She would see it; she would see his weakness… his fear...

“Don’t be afraid,” she reached for his closest hand, then pulled it to her lips, “I feel it, too.”

_Those words!_

He hadn’t heard her say those words since he was a little boy; every time he discovered some new and terrifying power he had, she’d be there, holding his hand, reassuring him until the fear went away. Now she was saying it again to the monster he’d become in the same loving manner. Suddenly every remaining atom of resistance inside him vanished and the cracked walls imprisoning his soul shattered, then tumbled away.

He slid from the platform, onto the floor and his knees, sobbing uncontrollably.

Releasing his hand, Leia slid from the platform to join her son on the floor; she put her hand under his chin, lifting his face gently.

“Mother...” his words were wet and babbling, like a child’s,“I…”

“Shhhhhh,” Leia moved in close and put her arms around him, “Enough for now. It’s going to be all right; we’ll make it right. You’ll see...”

The stranger was gone now; her son had just come home.

 

……....

 


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Game? What game???Who cares about the game - I wanna see Adam Driver!!!
> 
> The next chapter may need some time to do, so be patient...

-37-

 

It was perhaps the only remaining quiet place on Jakku.

 

The polar region was cold, desolate and dark; nobody went there for precisely those reasons, so anyone who did venture so far from more temperate regions was either crazy or trying to hide.

That description certainly applied to the crew of the Visitor and their unexpected guests, so everyone self-confined to their respective quarters, passing the time as best they could until their turn to enjoy the relative privacy of standing watch in the cockpit. They’d been there awhile; collecting water from frost was a slow process, and dark days ran together, so the only way to know the time was to ask the ship, so they left the task of tracking the time for each watch to Viz.

Dar Na had just finished his turn; Dar Noaa had joined him in the cockpit earlier to access the vessel’s data files, so instead of using the comlink and disturbing sleepers, he walked to Poe and Finn’s quarters to let them know that one of them was up for next watch.

When the door slid open, it was the newcomer at the entry; Finn and Poe were at the far end of the room, gambling over who got to go because whoever had to stay would have to watch the newcomer, and neither seemed very enthusiastic about that.

“Come in,” Hux said dully.

Dar Na complied; he was bored and a few minutes of conversation would do no harm because the cockpit was not unattended, so he stepped inside the door and it slid closed behind them.

 

…………

 

Alone in the cockpit, Dar Noaa had just been put on notice.

He already knew that he had a problem: eight beings in a vessel designed for a maximum of six, one of which was consuming about three times more food than the others. Supplies on board were already running low when they arrived on Jakku, so it was no surprise when the vessel reported that it could not sustain nutrition synthesis for much longer because of depleted ingredients.

In short, they were running out of food.

Ren, or Ben - Dar Noaa wasn’t sure which name would win out - had endured and then survived an unimaginable experience in the Goazon basin; it was nothing short of miraculous that he was even alive. He was recovering with astonishing speed, but he was still very weak; he would drift in and out of consciousness, so the girl Rey remained at his side, making sure that every time he opened his eyes, he was fed.

And the other new addition had to be fed, too, if only to keep him quiet.

It should have been a simple matter to resolve; a quick trip to one of Jakku’s trading posts to purchase real food at pirate prices - but nothing about Jakku was simple anymore. In the cockpit, the radio chatter was non-stop, often with multiple sources using the same frequency simultaneously, resulting in garbled gibberish that needed no translation. Jakku had become a crazed competition to get into the Goazon as fast as possible and exploit whatever was to be found there; it was a world populated by scavengers who’d gone completely mad, making it much too risky for something as small and defenseless as the Visitor to go shopping there for anything.

So, if the crew of the Visitor wanted to keep eating, they would have to get off Jakku.

Dar Noaa was staring into the holographic display, considering just where they should go, when Leia joined him there. She looked tired, but not unhappy.

“How is… he?” Dar Noaa asked.

“He’s so much better,” she replied, “We had a good talk this time, too. He seems less anxious now, but he isn’t ready to talk about… things."

“He may never be ready for that.”

“I know,” Leia was reluctant to admit it, but Ben’s recovery, if there was to be a recovery, would take a very long time. “Rey got him to eat something, and he’s sleeping now.”

“That’s a good thing, yes?”

“He’s on the floor again, but Rey says not to worry because they did that a lot.”

“*Did* they?”

There was a suggestive tone to his question, making Leia smile slightly, but she let it go and looked into the display to see what he’d been up to.

“Charts?” she asked, “Are we going somewhere?”

“We must take on supplies,” Dar Noaa reached into the image, then shifted it with a swipe of his hand to study another region, “but we can’t stay local; it’s madness on Jakku right now; actually, it seems to be madness everywhere...”

“We go back to the Resistance,” Leia said. “They need the data files you took from the Finalizer desperately.”

“If we do that,” Dar Noaa replied, “I’m sure they’ll welcome you back; they might even tolerate me; but what about your son and his… friend? Do you know who he is?”

“No, I forgot all about him. Who is he?”

“Armitage Hux.”

Leia’s mouth dropped open.

“As in the First Order general?”

“Yes,” Dar Noaa nodded.

“Does he know who I am?”

“Oh, yes,” Dar Noaa assured her with a wicked smile. “Young Finn made sure of that; I don’t think he’s very fond of his former commander.”

“No, he isn’t,” Leia answered, “Armitage Hux! I’m surprised Dar Na didn’t cut his throat...”

“That’s because Dar Na believes he is nothing more than a deserter from the First Order, like Finn,” Dar Noaa’s tone darkened; he hated the deception. “Say nothing to him about it; I’ve already warned young Finn and Poe to guard their words.”

“Understood,” Leia nodded slightly. The young Sith was a Traditional who’d had no time to come to terms with the loss of his mother on Hosnian Prime. If he discovered that Hux was the Starkiller general responsible for that, what he would do! Leia had no wish to find out, so, as much as she wanted to turn Hux over to the Resistance, she knew his presence in the Visitor was a complication she did not need. “I want Hux off the ship.”

“Agreed,” Dar Noaa replied. “There are several settlements on the far side of the planet; a twilight landing is cover enough to drop him there before we depart,” He threaded his fingers as he thought aloud. “Give him a cloak, a few credits, water and some of our medical kit. He has skill as a healer; he can trade on that.”

“Why give him *anything*? He’s a war criminal.”

“Your son had compassion for him.”

Leia had no reply; Dar Noaa praising Ben for any reason was something she never expected to hear, and she was embarrassed that he was willing to show Hux more mercy than she would.

“And leaving him here,” Dar Noaa added quickly, “is *punishment*, believe me; Jakku is a rigorous world; it’s unlikely that he can survive here.”

 

……..

 

Back in Poe and Finn’s quarters, Finn had won the two-out-of-three toss and was pulling his boots on to go stand watch and Poe plopped onto his sleep platform to sulk. Dar Na was growing impatient because there had been no good conversation at all and the newcomer kept staring at him in a way that irritated him.

“You are Sith,” the newcomer asked, “aren’t you?”

“Yes.” Dar Na replied indifferently.

“I thought your kind was extinct.”

Suddenly Poe and Finn were paying serious attention; they exchanged a look, then quickly got to their feet.

Dar Na turned to face the newcomer directly.

“Not so,” he replied coldly.

“I’ve always admired the Sith,” the newcomer didn’t hear the warning in Dar Na’s tone. “Their history is required reading for all officers who serve under my command.”

“Your command?”

Hux straightened up stiffly; assuming the posture was automatic; an officer of the First Order was expected to show pride when informing another of his rank.

“*Don’t*!” Poe lunged forward, trying to interrupt, but he was too late.

“I am General Armitage Hux,” Hux announced, “Commander of the First Order...”

 

…………...

 

Forward, in the cockpit, some progress had been made on where to go and what to do; despite Dar Noaa’s misgivings, they would return to the Resistance.

“We stay just long enough,” Leia said, “to give them the data files and get supplies; after that, we disappear.”

“Agreed.”

“What about Finn and Poe?”

“To come with us or stay with them?” Dar Noaa’s frowned slightly as he said it. “We’ve demanded too much of them already, and what lies ahead will be more demanding still. We have no right to influence their decision; but if they choose us, they will be welcome.”

“And Dar Na?”

“There is no place for him in your part of the galaxy; I wish it were otherwise...”

He was interrupted by the sound of muffled shouts, followed by a loud crash.

The shouting became much louder, as if a door had opened, then they heard movement in the corridor and the sound of the ship entry door sliding open, followed by a blast of frigid air.

They rushed to the corridor just in time to see Finn and Poe struggling with Dar Na, who was howling obscenities toward the open entry. The enraged young Sith sent them both bouncing off the walls and onto the floor, then raced to the entry and vanished into the icy darkness outside.

“Na *knows*!” Poe shouted as he pushed himself up from the floor, “The idiot *told* him who he was!”

 

………….

 

Outside, the frigid night was echoing with sounds of the chase; the crunch of footsteps pounding frozen soil at full speed was an overture to violence yet to come.

It was easy for Dar Noaa to see what was happening; the polar lights were active in the sky above them and the pastel colors of energized particles speeding down magnetic fields were reflecting on the frost-covered tundra below. Amid the dancing colors, a dark figure was fleeing, but he was not going to escape his pursuer, who was quickly closing the distance between them.

Moving as fast as he could, Dar Noaa felt, then saw, Finn and Poe speed ahead and realized that he would not reach Dar Na in time to do anything.

So he stopped.

Dar Noaa watched his cousin’s child overtake the being responsible for his mother’s death; he watched Dar Na trip the offender and send him tumbling; he watched Dar Na bend over and grab Hux by the arm to flip him onto his back; then he heard the young Sith screech out a curse as he raised his knife to split Hux wide open.

Part of him was right there, beside Dar Na, boiling with rage over grief so deep and terrible that only the warm scent of blood could ease the pain.

_Vengeance!_

But another part of him, the part wizened by age and experience, saw the futility in it, because time and time again, this was how the Sith destroyed themselves...

_**No.** _

Dar Noaa didn’t raise a hand to focus; the thought alone was enough.

Dar Na’s arm froze in place; he was only able to turn his head to look back, then spit out a curse.

Finn and Poe went straight to Hux; each grabbed a leg and dragged him out of Dar Na’s reach; then they watched as Dar Noaa walked to Dar Na and said something sternly in Sith. It was several seconds before Dar Na replied; a few words uttered back in Sith so quietly, they could barely hear it.

Dar Noaa bellowed a curse and released his hold on Dar Na, who sagged in submission.The elder Sith responded to that by pointing back at the ship in gesture that clearly meant “go!”and the young Sith bowed slightly, then obeyed, passing Poe and Finn without a look.

They pulled Hux to his feet, and then followed, passing the General on their way.

 

………...

 

The instant they got inside the ship, Finn grabbed Hux by the back of his neck and pulled him to his quarters entry, opened it, shoved Hux in, then followed and closed the entry behind them. Poe checked the Sith quarters, but found it empty; so he went to the cockpit and found Dar Na standing with his hands on the back of a seat, trembling.

“Are you all right?” Poe asked.

“Yes.”

Poe knew that wasn’t true; Dar Na looked utterly overwhelmed. Poe didn’t understand what he’d just witnessed out there, but he’d seen Dar Noaa extinguish Da Na’s fury with nothing more than a few words.

“What did Dar Noaa say to you?” he asked.

A strange, almost dreamlike, expression appeared on Dar Na’s face; he stared off towards nothing.

“He said... ‘the Sith will *not* begin again with an act of mindless violence’.”

“What,” Poe risked another question, “did you say?”

Dar Na turned, facing him with glowing yellow eyes.

“That which he can no longer deny.”

 

…………...

 

By the time Leia got to where Dar Noaa was standing, she was cold; the blanket she’d wrapped around herself was proving inadequate. She put her arms around him to share the blanket although it didn’t seem like he’d noticed the cold.

He was looking up at the sky, watching the colors dance.

“Look at it,” he said quietly, “Magnetic fields and charged particles, that's all; I understand the science; but even so, it’s always amazing to see.”

“It’s beautiful,” Leia replied, “but we have to go back; it’s freezing out here.”

“Is it?”

Leia didn’t reply; wherever he was, he was not here in the moment, and it worried her. To a Sith, vengeance was more than timeless tradition; it was part of the passion that *defined* him. It was his right, his duty, to avenge the dead; but Dar Noaa had just stopped his cousin’s son from doing what he himself should have done already. The conflict of that moment must have been unbearable, even for someone as extraordinary as him.

They stood there together for a long time, looking up in silence until Leia started to shiver and Dar Noaa felt it.

“You’re cold,” he said apologetically.

“It’s nothing.”

“We will go back...”

“Not until you tell me what happened,” Leia held her ground. “What did Dar Na say to upset you so much that you’d rather stand here and freeze to death than go back inside the ship and make things right with him?”

“He misspoke himself,” Dar Noaa’s voice was full of regret. “I overreacted.”

“Whatever he said, it was said in the heat of the moment; in *passion*.” She used the word deliberately for its effect, stroking his back gently as she said it, avoiding the burns. “Dar Na would never purposely say anything to insult you; he *worships* you, you know that. Surely you can get past it.”

Silence. Leia waited.

 

Unable to face her any longer, Dar Noaa looked up; deep red curtains of shimmering light now dominated the sky; they seemed to pulse in rhythm with his heart, which was still pounding fiercely inside his chest. He didn’t want to tell her that Dar Na words didn’t offend him; they’d *terrified* him, and he didn’t want to tell her why.

But he had to say something, so turned his face away from the sky and looked at Leia.

“Do you believe in destiny?” he asked.

“No.”

“Your brother does.”

“My *brother*,” she replied with a little laugh, “only believes in destiny *after* he’s chosen it; until that moment comes, he’s a skeptic.”

“I wish he’d told me that."

“I know the feeling,” Leia agreed; she was an authority on the subject. “Why are you asking; what’s all this about?”

“Nothing.”

“Good! Let’s go talk to Dar Na; I’m freezing.”

 

…………….

 

They found Dar Na in the cockpit with Poe, who quickly excused himself and left them to it. The young Sith rose from his seat and walked to Dar Noaa, then stood silently before him, eyes lowered in respect.

“I am sorry,” Dar Noaa said.

Dar Na’s expression answered for him; he’d not expected this.

“I *interfered*,” Dar Noaa admitted. “I denied you your vengeance.”

Dar Na’s face tightened, not with anger but confusion, but he remained silent, listening.

“I do not ask you to forgive,” Dar Noaa continued, “what I have done here. We are Sith; I share your pain; but the old ways *must* end if the Sith are to survive.”

Dar Na’s expression changed again; he raised his head so he could look into Dar Noaa’s eyes, but he said nothing.

“And you will not address me in that manner again. Is that understood?”

“Yes,” Dar Na replied.

“*Good*,” Dar Noaa’s head jerked a tiny nod; it meant the issue was now resolved and the subject closed. “Now, go get some rest; we must leave before this night is over and you will be needed.”

“Yes...” the young Sith nodded, then obeyed the command.

But as he was sliding past Dar Noaa to leave, his eyes were glowing, speaking for him, saying the words he’d just promised not to say again:

“… _my Lord.”_

 

…………….

 

 

Early twilight was hugging the horizon as the Visitor touched down in a narrow ravine not far from a good-sized settlement. Dar Noaa chose it because it was in a primarily agricultural region of Jakku, so the inhabitants were less likely to be in a crazed uproar over the Goazon and hopefully, less likely to greet a newcomer with a quick and violent death.

They would not be staying long...

 

Only Dar Noaa and Leia were there to see him off; Dar Noaa gave him the cloak, the bundle and a few credits; Leia gave him the dagger from her boot.

“My son has given you a second chance,” she advised, “Don’t waste it.”

He didn’t thank her.

“Trust no one,” Dar Noaa advised, “And stay *quiet*; if you remain unnoticed, you remain alive.”

He didn’t reply.

Dar Noaa and Leia returned to the ship; the entry closed and withins seconds, the Visitor was rising into the brightening gloom overhead.

Hux watched until it vanished from view.

 

The air was cold, so he quickly got inside the cloak; it was coarse and ragged, but warm. He inspected the dagger before shoving it into his right boot; then he opened the bundle, inspected its contents, then twisted a handle of sorts from the tattered fabric before repacking it.

The sun rose; it was bright and still, and far off in the distance, he could see thin white columns of smoke rising just beyond a ridge, marking the settlement he’d been promised was there. It would be a long walk, but he felt he could make it by day’s end if he started right away.

 

And with only that thought in mind, Armitage Hux hung the bundle from his shoulder and set off alone, heading towards a new life.

 

………...

 

 


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, here's the thing: it's going to take longer to wrap this up than I thought, so the choice was another week or break it up. I chose to break it up. 
> 
> This is Chapter 38 Part One. 
> 
> This story will end, I promise - just not tonight.

 -38- Part One

 

The region of the galaxy known as the Republic was strangely quiet.

The invasion everyone expected never materialized; the First Order fleet did not come charging into Republic space, and the rumor that it had withdrawn entirely instead was slowly being proved fact. Worlds were still in shock over the loss of the Holonet; communications had been set back thirty years and information was once again being shared in tiny packets that took time to send, to receive, then to translate. One could even say that, in a perverse way, the second attack ended the great galactic panic by simply boring it to death.

There was, however, a certain Resistance Transport where the crew was anything but bored; it only took one coded message to put them in rumor overdrive...

 

The little corporal was navigating the corridor of the Resistance transport that led to the officers quarters as fast as she could, working her way through the excited crew without pausing to answer any of the questions being tossed her way by everyone she passed.

“Is it true?”

“Do we know when she’ll get here?”

“Is the colonel going to be there to greet her?”

The news had spread throughout the ship in record time: General Leia Organa was coming back! That was all the news they had, so there was nothing for the colonel’s aide to tell them anyway, and Colonel Lexde was waiting for her, so she brushed the questions aside with a hand and a smile.

He was sitting at his desk, hunched forward, staring into the display of his workstation when she knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

“You sent for me, sir?”

“Yes, corporal; I need you to do a favor for me.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Go down to storage and retrieve General Organa’s container.”

“Where should I take it? Will you be returning her quarters to her?”

“I suppose so.”

“It’s all over the ship already; the crew is really excited. They’re all asking to be there to greet her.”

“I’m sorry to say they will be disappointed.”

“Sir? I mean, it's the *General*...”

“ Go do as I asked.”

“Yes, sir.”

As soon as she departed, the colonel went back to staring at the display. The encoded message from the Republic Emergency Council was as precise as it was disturbing:

 

**Received : Re: General Organa.**

**Permisson to board granted; vessel is to be quarantined.**

**Debrief the general; send complete transcript.**

That was expected, it was protocol now; but the next section gave him cause for concern:

**The Sith accompanying the general is to be detained for questioning.**

**Tactical Freighter Tanxine has been dispatched to retrieve the general, the Sith and the vessel for return to Coruscant.**

The Colonel murmured a curse; nothing had gone right since Hosnian Prime was lost, and every new directive he received from the Emergency Council had the odor of power changing hands as quickly as possible. Rolan Lexde was career military; he’d seen this before; he could already see that there was trouble ahead for the Resistance if things continued on this path.

And he was afraid for Leia Organa.

 

…………

 

Hyperspace.

Luke Skywalker never snored.

That fact always annoyed Chewbacca; when Luke closed his eyes and became very still, there was no way at all to tell if he was meditating or sleeping; the Jedi Master seemed to be suspended in time, motionless, breathless, like the surface of a pond on a calm day.

The first time Chewbacca witnessed Luke in that state of whatever, he thought Luke was *dead*, and panicked accordingly. As the decades slipped by, that event was often the subject of merciless teasing by Han Solo, and the Wookie came to see the humor in it; but even now, Luke’s stillness made him uneasy.

Not long after the Millennium Falcon made the jump to hyperspace on route to Jakku, Luke eased himself back into the copilot seat, closed his eyes and become still. In the silence that followed, Chewbacca tried to busy himself with the minutia of space flight; checking and rechecking readings and values and progress reports, but that wasn’t enough to fend off the sadness he felt, nor was it effective against the dark thoughts that followed.

Maz was dead.

She’d warned him many times that everything, even she, had to end, but he never imagined that she would end the way she did. She was awesome to the end.

As he gazed out into the meaningless blur of hyperspace, he could still hear her.

“ _Think about what I just said.”_

When Luke explained why he wanted to return to Jakku, he revealed that the crew of Visitor now included his nephew.

That was *exactly* how he said it, too; 'his nephew’, as if to remind Chewbacca of their relationship. Was it information or a warning? Luke didn’t need Jedi powers to know how Chewbacca felt about Han Solo’s killer; the Wookie’s stony silence every time the subject came up testified to the burning rage inside him. Now every parsec crossed was bringing Chewbacca closer to the inevitable moment when he would have to make a terrible choice, because avenging his lifetime friend would mean committing an unforgivable act against other friends that meant everything to him, too.

Chewbacca looked over at Luke; this conflict was unbearable...

Luke opened his eyes.

Chewbacca jerked back, fearful that the Jedi had been in his head, listening; but Luke gave no sign that he’d been eavesdropping on his thoughts.

“They’ve left Jakku,” Luke said. “I think I know where they’re heading; take us out of hyperspace, and I’ll get you coordinates.”

And that was all the Jedi said, as was often the case; Luke seldom went into detail about how his Force powers worked and Chewbacca never asked. Relieved that his thoughts were still his alone, he mewed his consent, then got to work.

 

………………….

 

Hyperspace.

 

In the cockpit of the Visitor, Poe Dameron was in his favorite spot, dozing through his turn at watch. That was Dar Noaa’s suggestion; he was already there working at the waveform when Poe arrived, and although Poe was not sleepy at all, when he sat down, he felt a little tired after all and closed his eyes.

With Poe asleep and out of the way, Dar Noaa resumed his review of the contents on the little data cartridge that rested on the waveform in front of him. He did not share Leia’s confidence that the Resistance could be trusted with such monumental information now that the Republic was, for all practical purposes, history. He no longer had to care about politics; his only responsibility now was to protect family, friends and allies.

“Scan,” he said.

The ship replied, a single ding; the waveform connected to the data cartridge resting on its smooth surface, wrapping it with fingers of red energy.

“Delete all references to the Kourin.”

Silence.

“You’ve done that already,” he asked, “haven’t you?”

The ship replied: a single ding.

“Scan; delete all references to Kylo Ren.”

The ship replied; a single ding.

“Scan,” Dar Noaa’s fingers tapped the waveform, entering coordinates, “delete all navigational charts beyond this point.”

The ship replied; a single ding.

The last command was going to take some time to execute because it required sequential deletions in space-time dimension to remove all traces of the data, so Dar Noaa reached over and tapped Poe awake.

“I need sleep,” he told the startled, squinting pilot, “Wake me when the vessel completes this task.”

The short walk to his quarters was far enough to remind him how old he was; the pain patch on his back was wearing off and the stiffness in his legs and spine competed for attention with the burns. By the time he reached the entry to his quarters, he grumbling softly to himself.

“Always time time for one more scar...”

When he stepped inside the entry, he was surprised not to see Dar Na there sleeping, but he could hear muffled sounds of conversation coming from across the corridor in Finn and Poe’s quarters and felt relieved that Dar Na was occupied elsewhere. There was still a long, serious talk with Na ahead of him, but he was going to get some rest before he did another thing.

He eased his body carefully onto the sleep platform and put himself to sleep.

 

…..

 

Just across the corridor, the entry to Finn and Poe’s quarters slid open and Leia Organa stepped out, then turned to look back at its occupants; Finn and Dar Na were sitting there looking back at her with tired faces..

“Thank you, Dar Na.”

The young Sith nodded slightly, then looked down at the floor.

Leia felt guilty that she’d just stooped to using her status as Darth Vader’s daughter to pressure Dar Na into telling her what was said between him and Dar Noaa outside in the cold, but the young one was so devoted to his elder that only invoking her father’s name would break through his loyalty.

The entry door slid closed, ending the encounter.

Dar Noaa was right; it was a misunderstanding, nothing more. Leia had an idea why Dar Noaa reacted the way he did, but she wanted to talk to him about it nonetheless. She knew he was working on the data transfer in the cockpit, but when she arrived there, she found only Poe. The waveform was active; a red display was streaming line after line, but too fast to for Leia to read.

“What’s this?” she asked, “Where’s Dar Noaa?”

“He went to get some sleep,” Poe informed her. “This is… I’m not sure; I think he was making some modifications to the data cartridge.”

The data stream ended and the ship announced completion with a series of low, almost musical tones. Leia was curious now, because he hadn’t said anything about modifications, so she put her hand on the waveform and it instantly accepted her, turning red to green in a flash.

“Has the data cartridge been modified?” she asked.

“Yes,” the ship replied in her own voice.

“Summarize the modifications.”

The summary appeared on the display in front of her instantaneously; it was brief, but informative: Dar Noaa had deleted files. Removing references to the Kourin made sense; so did removing references to Kylo Ren; only a few trusted friends knew that Ben Solo was Kylo Ren, and making sure it stayed that way was a good idea. Then she saw that the navigational charts had been altered, but there was no record of how and to what extent.

“Set three,” she commanded, “detail.”

“Unavailable,” the ship replied. It sounded almost smug about it.

“General?” Poe asked, “should I wake Dar Noaa?”

“No, no,” she replied, “I’ll do it.”

 

…….

 

_The air was good, the land was rich with green growing things; streams and rivers nourished it; low mountains in the distance hid the rest from view. A spectacular thunderstorm was was lighting the evening sky, promising rain._

_He was standing there surveying it all; someone was holding his hand._

“ _An excellent choice.”_

_The familiar voice demanded his attention; he looked down. Maz Katana was looking up; her huge eyes weren’t suspicious this time._

“ _Temperate, but untamed,” she said,“it suits you.”_

_A brilliant flash of lightning striking much too close blinded him; he waited for the thunder..._

 

“Open your eyes, Noah!”

The words were followed by a slap to his face, jolting him awake. He had a hand in motion to defend himself when he sensed that it was her.

“Leia?”

Even in the dim light, Dar Noaa could see that she was angry.

“Is there something you forgot to tell me...” she demanded, “...my *Lord*?”

“Dar Na told you?”

“Of course he did,” Leia folded her arms defensively, almost hugging herself. “Lady Vader outranks a Sith lord.”

“Don’t say that,” he rubbed his cheek. “I’m no Sith lord.”

“That remains to be seen.”

“What?” he stared up at her in disbelief. “How can you say that? You *know* me.”

“Do I?”

“What does *that* mean?” He rolled onto his side, wanting to sit up; but his back said no, so he turned his head to see her face again. “What have I done?”

“Why did you modify the data cartridge?”

“Oh, that…” he rolled his eyes and looked away. “I was going to tell you… eventually.”

“Why did you do it?”

“The Kourin must remain hidden; if their involvement is exposed in any way, the First Order will exterminate them. Your son must remain hidden, too; you know why.”

“And the navigation charts?”

“I gave them enough to map the First Order core worlds; it’s all they need.”

“Who says you get to decide what they need?”

“The *Kourin*,” he replied angrily. “The First Order charts are mostly their work,” he sat up carefully. “while they were dutifully charting for their masters, they were also charting for themselves.”

He paused to breathe away the pain before continuing.

“There must be a thousand worlds out there that the Order ignores because their navigational charts identify them as ‘unacceptable’; but in the original Kourin program, ‘unacceptable’ has *two* meanings,” he pointed with both hands at invisible targets, “unacceptable for anyone and unacceptable for the Order. That detail is never displayed in the chart, though, and since the Order is based on not questioning anything that comes down from authority, no one ever noticed. By now, that detail is buried under layers and layers of updates and improvements, so they probably never will.”

“So?”

“The Kourin created their own charts *within* the First Order charts; unacceptable worlds of the second kind are those the Kourin set aside for themselves. And for us, too.”

“A new world for a new Sith order?”

“No! A new world for *us*, Leia,” he corrected her fiercely, “you and I and the young ones. I have no thought beyond that.”

“Then why were you so upset when Dar Na called you ‘Lord’?”

“I was *already* upset; he gave me someone to be upset with.”

“There was no dark meaning behind what he said,” Leia’s hold on herself softened; her arms dropped to her sides. “Dar Na’s been through too much loss; he’s desperate to hold on to anything he can; the family ‘prophecy’ about you is something he can’t let go of, not yet, because you’re all he has now. To him, you are Lord of the Sith."

“Lord of the Sith; you don't know how much I despise that ridiculous 'prophecy',” Dar Noaa said the word like an enemy’s name; his eyes began to glow. “It's followed me like a shadow my entire life. I rejected it; I turned from it; I walked away... the family never forgave me for that, and they never let me forget it, either. I thought it died when they delivered me up for execution and I'd never hear it again, but then Dar Na resurrected it out there in the dark and I bit his head off for it. Poor Na, he only knows the 'prophecy'; he doesn't know the reality behind it."

The sadness in his voice extinguished what little anger Leia still had; she sat beside him.

“I rejected that prophecy and never regretted it,” the glow in his eyes took on a watery appearance, “not even when they chained me to the wall...” he swallowed hard, holding the tears back. “... and I have the scars to prove it. Once we're settled, when we're somewhere safe, I'll tell him the story..."

She turned from the waist and leaned close enough to put a hand to his face and gently wipe the wetness away.

“I didn’t know,” she said, “that the Sith could cry.”

He reached up and gabbed her hand, holding it there against his face.

“I want us to be *safe*,” he whispered. “I want us to have a world where these children can live different lives than we've had to live. No Sith Lord would care about that...”

Leia put her free hand to the other side of his face and turned it to hers, cradling it as she looked into his eyes.

“This one will,” she whispered back.

Then she kissed him. He kissed her back.

It might have been the start of something, but Poe Dameron's voice coming from the comlink cut it short.

“We’re there.” He sounded serious. “You should get up here right now.”

 

…………….

 

By the time Leia and Dar Noaa joined Poe in the cockpit, the Resistance Transport was already filling the waveform display. The pilot was staring at it with intense interest.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” he said quietly.

“What’s wrong?” Dar Noaa asked.

“They want us to use the auxiliary hanger, not the main bay.”

“Probably just a security precaution,” Leia offered, “A lot has happened since we left…” she thought for a second, then added “… stay alert.”

Listening to the soft mechanical hiss of landing stabilizers forming below, Poe guided the ship smoothly through the tight hanger entry; when the sound stopped, he set the ship down so delicately that there was no contact thump at all.

It was quiet; too quiet.

They were in the Transport atmosphere now, but Poe couldn’t hear the familiar sounds of activity that he was expecting, even looking forward to. The waveform display told the story; no one was there. At first, it confused him, then it made him angry.

“*This* is how they welcome us back?” he complained.

“Look.” Leia wasn’t ignoring Poe, she just saw a familiar face appear in the hanger. Rolan Lexerd was more than a comrade; he and his wife were long-time personal friends. “We *are* being greeted; I’ll go find out why he had us dock here.”

“I’m coming with you,” Dar Noaa’s tone made it clear there would be no discussion about it. “If I show myself, his attention will be on me and not the vessel.”

“All right,” Leia replied, “but let me do the talking.”

“Of course.”

Dar Na was at the entry waiting for them; standing there silently, blocking the way. Finn was standing behind him.

“You two wish to come along?” Dar Noaa asked.

“Yes.”

“You’re both needed here,” Dar Noaa stepped up to Dar Na, then lowered his voice, “in case this was… a mistake.” He had their attention now. “If anything goes wrong, do whatever you must to escape. A destination course is already set; the sequence access code is 'Kourin'.”

Dar Na snorted, then stepped back, out of the way. Dar Noaa tapped the entry control panel and it slid open; he stepped outside. Following him, Leia paused as she passed Dar Na and Finn.

“Don’t worry,” she tried to reassure them, “we’ll be fine.”

Finn nodded and gave her a nervous smile; Dar Na only lowered his eyes in a show of respect. Leia patted his arm, then went through the entry and out.

As he stood in the open entry watching them walk away, Finn couldn’t shake the feeling that Dar Noaa might have been right about this being a mistake.

It was. He could _feel_ it.

 

……….

 

Hyperspace.

 

The Force was clear again, but that was not why Luke felt his family as they passed each other in hyperspace; that was strictly from love. He sensed that the Visitor's crew was tired and sore and irritated with one another, but beneath all that, he also sensed something new, profound and very important.

Belonging.

They were _family_ now.

It filled Luke with joy; what they accomplished in the Goazon Basin hadn’t just saved the galaxy, it had set the foundation for building a future together. It was not going to be easy, but at least now it was possible.

As soon as they'd dropped into normal space, the Falcon’s scanners detected the faint ping of a familiar ID transmission proved him right; Leia was returning to the Resistance Transport. A quick change of destination coordinates later, the Millennium Falcon was in hyperspace again, heading back in the direction it had just come from, chasing after his family.

As he was counting the minutes remaining until they caught up, Luke thought about Ackbar’s warning; the Emergency Council was after him; they would have serious interest in Senator Organa, too, if for no other reason than to use her as a means to influence, even control, her brother. She had nothing to fear from the Resistance, though; he’d tell her everything when he got there...

Then he sensed that she was already in trouble.

 

…………….

 

In normal space, aboard the Resistance Transport, word that nobody would be seeing the General spread like noxious gas; the disappointment resulted in questions, confusion, then anxious speculation about why. Then the rumors started: the Emergency Council was behind it; that was followed by the disquieting news that a Coruscanti Tactical ship was coming. The CT fleet was notorious; civilian vessels and individuals that fell under their control had a tendency to vanish under mysterious circumstances and the Coruscant government’s ‘investigations’ never produced results. No one aboard the Transport trusted the Emergency Council, mainly because no one trusted Coruscant. Even the Resistance fighters who actually came from Coruscant expressed real concern that the Tanxine was on its way to intercept them.

Everyone agreed about that.

The only beings aboard who hadn’t heard about it were the crew members of the Visitor, and that was about to change for two of them.

 

Leia and Dar Noaa were sitting in Colonel Lexde’s office listening intently as he began to explain the situation they’d just stepped into.

“*Quarantine*?” Leia was incredulous, “*Seriously*, Rolan?”

“This isn’t my doing, Leia,” he replied, “The order came from the Emergency Council. Since the second attack, they’re suspicious of everyone, including us.”

What second attack?”

“Don’t you know?” Lexde’s eyes widened. “The *Holonet’s* gone; the entire network is down. The details are vague, but we know the First Order was behind it.”

“Was it?” Dar Noaa’s question had a trace of dark amusement in it, prompting Leia to take control of the conversation.

“Is that what they told you?” she asked.

“It had to be the First Order, Leia,” Lexde gave her a curious look. “Who else could it be?”

Dar Noaa’s expression changed; he’d been so wrapped up in immediate problems that he hadn’t considered how the rest of the galaxy would interpret and react to losing the Holonet. On its surface, blaming the First Order seemed harmless, even beneficial, because it pointed away from the crew of the Visitor.

Or did it?

The vessel came from the First Order; it was stolen, first from the Order, then from the Republic, by him. Then there were the data files; stolen from the First Order in a raid on the Finalizer that most beings would find hard to believe; once again, by him. And now, Leia had a data cartridge in her pocket that contained some of those files; all selected and then modified by him. It was possible that bringing Leia back here was a much bigger mistake than he feared it might be; he needed to hear more.

“How did they do it?” he asked.

“The word is,” the Colonel replied, “that it’s another entirely *new* weapon; every world from the Core to the Outer Rim was hit simultaneously; whatever it is, it must have unimaginable power.”

Leia and Dar Noaa exchanged a look.

“So,” Leia asked, “the damage is extensive?”

“Extensive?” Lexde almost laughed at the question. “I’m talking about *total* destruction here; nobeing anywhere is willing to estimate how long it will take to restore it.”

“ A very long time, I suppose.”

“Right now, every star system is screaming for blood,” Lexde raised his hands, spreading and curling his fingers to mimic claws, “even the pacifists that wanted to shut us down want war.”

“We always knew it would come to this.”

“I suppose we did,” Lexde sounded resigned, even bitter, as he spoke, “just not in this fashion; which brings me to the matter at hand.”

“What’s that?”

Lexde rose from his chair, walked around the desk, slowing only long enough to gesture that they should join him before heading to the door.

“Come with me.”

 

He led them quickly to the center of the corridor, then stopped abruptly and turned to face them.

“I’m sorry, Leia...”

Doors slid open and the corridor filled with the ship’s security force; first surrounding Leia and Dar Noaa, then closing in between them.

“… we’ve been ordered to detain the Sith for questioning.”

Leia’s shock quickly became anger; forcing her way through a crowd that was reluctant to stop her, she challenged the friend who’d just betrayed her trust loudly.

“Why?” she demanded.

“I don’t know why,” Lexde answered; an admission that caused an audible groan of dissatisfaction from the listening security guards. “I have no choice. I give you my word, he will be treated well.”

“What about me?”

“The Council wants you as an adviser, your brother, too, if he can be found. They’re sending a ship to take you to Coruscant,” Lexde tried to sound unconcerned about that, but failed miserably. “I know how this sounds, but there’s no reason to be alarmed...”

“Who’s alarmed? Leia shot back, “Am I being ‘detained’, too?”

“No, not at all,” he replied quickly. “You’re not under arrest, General; your quarters are being prepared for you right now; you can even go back to your ship one more time to get whatever you need.”

“How generous.”

“I am sorry.”

Lexde’s regret was genuine; Leia could see that in his face. She waited second, softened her approach, then made a request.

“Give me a moment with the Sith.”

“Of course.”

Leia the General turned and walked back to Dar Noaa; the security guards parted the way for her a second time, then backed off to give the two of them space to talk. So far, he’d done nothing, but she could feel the anger building inside him and she knew what could happen if they provoked him. She got as close to him as she dared with so many eyes on them, then kept her voice low.

“Don’t be Sith about this, Noah,” she said it in a way she’d never said it before,“they’re just following orders. Nobody here needs to get hurt...  please.”

“Understood.”

Dar Noaa said it calmly, but there was nothing reassuring in his voice. Leia knew he’d already assessed the situation; nobody would get hurt unless he decided it was necessary, then *everybody* would get hurt, including him. But until he made that decision, she could trust him to keep his word, which made how she said her next words very important.

“The Council is sending a ship to take us to Coruscant.”

He reacted with an expression so fleeting that no one saw it but her.

“If that happens,” he told her, “some of us will never see Coruscant.”

“Understood.”

He risked leaning closer to her.

“Give them *nothing*,” he whispered. “Go back to the vessel and get out of here.”

“We don’t have to do anything yet,” she argued back quietly. “It’s going to take time for them to get here; we’ll think of something.”

Dar Noaa gave her a little smile; he didn’t share her optimism, but he loved her for it. What harm would it do if he told her what she wanted to hear instead of what he thought?

“Understood.”

Leia resisted the urge to reach for his hand or touch his arm, because any sign of affection shown now would be noticed. She told him she loved him with a look, and he replied in kind.

The moment was broken when some unseen signal from behind them caused the security guards to move in. They kept their heads down, avoiding her eyes as they used their bodies to gently nudge her out of their way, separating her from him.

Then he was taken away, and all she could do was stand there and watch.

 

…..

 

 

 


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And, so, it comes down to this...

-39-

PART TWO

 

Colonel Rolan Lexde had done many terrible things in his life, all in the line of duty.

Sometimes the orders he carried out were obviously justified, even righteous; sometimes the orders were practical, but not particularly moral; and sometimes the orders were murky. On several rare occasions, the orders were utterly idiotic, or even worse, disturbingly sinister; but Lexde always did his duty.

Leia Organa had always admired that about him, so it was darkly ironic that she was now standing in his office trying to persuade him to ignore orders and neglect his duty.

“Don’t give me that loyalty speech again,” she argued, “You know what CT is; you served with them; you know what happens to anybody who falls into their hands.

“Will you just sit down, Leia?” He gestured at the empty chair in front of her. “Please.”

He sounded weary, Leia wondered if she was doing this wrong. She stepped around the chair and sat down on it.

“Must I remind you again of our situation?” he asked. “We’re at *war*; Coruscant is the Republic now; we have nowhere else to go for support. My first duty is to those who believed enough in our cause to join the Resistance, not to the general who left us to go cruising around the galaxy in stolen Republic property with, of all beings, Leia - a *Sith*!”

Leia swallowed hard; Lexde’s point of view would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to change without revealing things that would only make the situation worse. She had the proof that they had succeeded in getting valuable information about the First Order in her pocket, but Dar Noaa’s ‘give them nothing’ kept echoing in her head. Lexde was smart and experienced; if she shared some of what she now knew about how contractors inside the Republic had been getting rich on illegal and traitorous First Order business, his reaction could give her something to bargain with.

“What if I told you,” she tested the waters, “that I’ve been in First Order territory?”

“I’d remind you,” he leaned forward in his seat, “that this debriefing is being *recorded*.” He slid his hand sideways to his workstation and tapped the pause key. “And now, it’s not.”

“Thank you, Rolan.”

“What have you got, Leia?”

“Data,” Leia made her first offer; she didn’t mention the cartridge in her pocket. “I’ve seen navigation charts, military communications, and some very interesting financial information.”

“Financial information?”

“Yes; would it surprise you to hear that the First Order has been doing business inside the Republic?”

“No; I’ve seen enough of their wartech to recognize it as our own.”

“Not just wartech, Rolan; their plan is the complete assimilation of *everything* Republic; they even copied the Holonet. And I don’t think the Order attacked the Holonet; I think they tried to integrate theirs into ours in order to take it over, but failed, and that’s what brought everything down.”

Lexde took the news with a blink, then silence.

“I’ve just come from Jakku,” Leia offered more clues, “Here’s what I saw there: the First Order’s flagship crashed onto one of their moons, the entire Goazon reduced to a smoldering hole in the ground and no First Order troops to be seen anywhere.”

“They’ve withdrawn?”

“Yes.”

“That is surprising – and good – news.”

“Yes, there’s time to work up a defense strategy for when they return.”

“The data you say you have will be crucial to that, won’t it?”

“Yes.”

“And now you’re going to make your pitch.”

“You know me too well,” Leia conceded gracefully. “I’ll tell you everything I know just as soon as you let the Sith and his ship go.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Yes, you can. I’m not asking you to openly release him; just find an excuse to let him go back to his ship; believe me, he’ll do the rest.”

Lexde considered the offer, but only for a few seconds.

“I can’t,” he shook his head as he said it, “I’m sorry, Leia; I truly am.”

“So am I.”

A long, awkward silence later, she rose from her seat and crossed her arms symbolically.

“I’d like to go get my things now,” her words were flat, defeated, “if I still can."

“Of course.”

As Lexde watched Leia march to opening door, then pass between the two ‘escorts’ waiting outside for her to take the lead, he knew that she was already thinking up ways that she and her Sith could escape. That was just the way Leia Organa was; the more defeated she seemed to be, the more likely it was that she would come up with something totally fearless and unexpected to get her way.

And deep down, Rolan Lexde wished her luck.

………

 

Something was wrong; Finn could feel it.

He was pacing anxiously in the auxiliary hanger bay; marching back and forth in front of the ship, partly to exercise his wounded leg and partly to manage the stress of waiting. Poe was in the ship’s open entry, leaning against it, watching. When they heard the sound of the hanger bay interior doors sliding open, they turned together and were instantly disappointed to see a single, short silhouette coming through it.

The little corporal waved, then called them by name. She was pushing a loaded cart their way; she was bringing them some hot food and a container of assorted ‘personal’ items she’d randomly pulled from Supply. Her request, presented ‘on behalf of the crew’ since they were not permitted to greet the General themselves, a small token of welcome to be delivered to the ship had been approved without hesitation, and she was in a rush to get there before anyone had second thoughts.

Poe knew her, but not well; she was someone he’d smile at when they’d pass in the corridor, but he did not remember name. Finn didn’t know her at all; even the aroma of the meal she had brought was strange to him, but the thought of a fresh meal was enough to make him smile.

“I brought you something to eat, and some… things,” she gushed. “Everyone is glad you’re back safe, and cannot wait til you get sprung out of quarantine.”

“This is great!” Poe inspected the containers, “I’m starving.”

“Maybe,” Finn suggested reluctantly, “we should wait until the General and Dar Noaa are back.”

“Have a roll while you wait,” the corporal lifted the cover to show off the bread, “They’re still hot.”

Finn’s eyes widened; when he hesitated, Poe stepped in.

“I’ll have one,” he told her.

The corporal quickly selected a roll from the pile, but instead of extending her hand to pass it to Poe, she leaned her body toward him, coming close as she placed it into his hand.

“Word is,” She whispered cautiously, “there’s a CT ship on its way to take you all back to Coruscant.”

“Thank you,” Poe replied, closing his fingers around it.

“And one for you,” she grabbed another roll and passed it to Finn. “I can’t stay… I hope you enjoy the food.”

She gave them a strained smile, then turned and left.

Poe studied the roll in his hand for a second, then looked at Finn.

“We’re in trouble,” he said quietly.

Suddenly, the roll on its way to Finn’s mouth lost its appeal; he stopped his hand from delivering it, and turned his face away from it to look at Poe.

“What did she say to you?” he asked.

“Coruscant Tactical is coming for us. Do you...”

“I know all about them,” Finn cut him off, his tone became dark as he remembered the details, “they were on command’s list of ‘worthy’ adversaries; fast, heavily armored... *merciless*.”

“Let’s get this food inside the ship so we can talk.”

Finn tossed his roll back onto the pile, then grabbed the cart and started pulling it toward the ship entry; Poe stuffed his roll into his mouth and followed.

 

Once inside the Visitor and away from the eyes and ears of the Transport surveillance system, Poe and Finn went to the cockpit, where Dar Na was sitting watch. The young Sith read their faces and rose from his seat to stand with them, then got straight to the point.

“Speak.”

“Trouble,” Poe’s explanation would be just as direct.“You know of Coruscant Tactical?”

“Yes.”

“They’re coming for us.”

Dar Na’s reaction was about what Poe expected; when Dar Noaa stole the Visitor, he cut his ties to A and A, which instantly made him an enemy of the Republic. If CT got hold of the two Sith, it was a certainty they would never be seen again.

“Dar Noaa must be told.” Dar Na’s thoughts were racing ahead; he tried to get past Poe and Finn, but they blocked the way. “I must find him...”

“No,” Poe argued, “They haven’t seen you; you have to stay here; that’s what Dar Noaa wanted.”

Dar Na hissed something at him in Sith, but stopped pushing.

“Then you must go,” he argued back, “find him, warn him...”

“I will,” Poe replied quickly.

“How?”

Poe made a face; Dar Na had just asked the question he was already asking himself.

“What do we do?” Finn joined in. “What *can* we do?”

“You and me,” Poe looked at Finn, “we’ll go get him, and the General, too.”

They didn’t notice the movement at the entry; Leia Organa had just returned and overheard them.

“No you won’t,” she said loudly.

Three heads jerked her way; three faces stared at her, but only for a few seconds. Finn recovered first; the General had returned alone.

“Dar Noaa?” he asked anxiously.

“He’s been ‘detained’.”

“CT’s coming for us,” Poe reported the news quickly, even though he figured she already knew about it. “They’re on their way.”

“I know.”

“What are your orders, General?”

“We will *not* be taken,” she replied. “Is that understood? We’re getting out of here before they arrive… *all* of us.” She was looking at Dar Na now. “That includes Dar Noaa.”

“We’d already decided that," Poe told her, “at least, now we know where to find him.”

“I will go.” Dar Na said; his glowing eyes betrayed the calm in his voice.

“Only if we have no other choice,” Leia raised her hand to stop him. “I want no violence, Dar Na; these people are my comrades, they’re my *friends*.”

“That’s it!” Poe raised two fists enthusiastically. “They’re our friends! I have an idea...”

…

 

It was a brilliant idea in theory.

General Organa had requested, and been granted, at least one full hour to collect her things, but her escorts were quick to tell her to take as long as she needed and call when she was ready for them to come back. That meant that there were no guards loitering around the auxiliary hanger door, which would make the rest of the plan much easier going.

Leia got on the comlink and requested that the two Resistance fighters on the Visitor who were not specifically named in the CT communique be permitted to make use of the Transport’s Sanitation facility’s showers.

“They’re filthy,” she told Colonel Lexde, “and they *stink*.”

“I see no harm in it,” Lexde’s voice sounded curiously amused. “Permission granted.”

 

They were assigned only one ‘escort’, who turned out to be someone Poe knew very well. The friend didn’t ask to examine their packs, and then accompanied them only as far as the door to the shower room.

“Take your time,” he waved as he walked away, “when you’re done, just hit the comlink and I’ll walk you back.”

“Thanks!” Poe waved back, then looked at Finn. “It’s good to have friends.”

After piling their clothes on their packs in the changing slots, they walked naked to the showers and washed, exchanging greetings with the few others there, then lingered in the steamy streams until no one else remained in the room but them. Toweling off quickly, they went to their slots and dressed in the clothes they’d worn in, opened the packs, pulled out holsters and blasters and suited up. Then they headed to the door without touching the comlink.

They strode through the Transport corridors with their heads held high; two Resistance fighters on a very important mission. Everyone they passed welcomed them back; they shook hands and waved as they walked along, even pausing for a minute to answer a question.

“Debriefing.” Poe Dameron pointed up, indicating why they couldn’t stop.

Everyone believed it.

…

 

Aboard the Visitor, Dar Na was doing double duty; he was preparing BB8 for a special assignment while keeping watch for any unexpected guests in the hanger.

In Leia’s quarters, Rey was sitting on the edge of the sleep platform, reading a manual and keeping watch while Ren slept. He’d dozed off there, but she knew he wouldn’t stay; it was too soft. Soon he would rouse, roll over, then drop off the platform and then continue sleeping on the floor.

The door slid open and the general entered quietly; Rey greeted her silently, then pointed at Ren.

Leia nodded, then walked softly to Rey and placed a blaster on the workstation near her.

“We’re in trouble,” she answered the question in the girl’s eyes. “We shouldn’t have come here; Dar Noaa’s been locked up and there’s a Republic ship coming after us.”

Rey looked at Ren; the implications for him were obvious and bad.

“There’s more,” Leia continued, “Finn and Poe have gone to get Dar Noaa and bring him back here; we’re hoping we can sneak out before they know we’re gone, but if we can’t, we’ll have to fight our way out, and if we can’t do that, then...”

Leia’s voice faded, but Rey knew what was coming next; if their efforts failed, the General was not going to let Ren be taken. Even worse, she could feel that, even though he was asleep, Ren had heard every word and agreed with her.

Leia sat down next to her, joining the vigil over her son.

“So much for saving the galaxy,” she sighed.

“Finn can do it.”

Rey said it with such calm assurance that Leia looked at her expecting more; but Rey didn’t seem to notice; her eyes were fixed on Ren.

And from the side, Leia thought she saw the soft, red glow again.

…..

 

In the Transport, things were going well for Poe and Finn.

The first half of the mission was accomplished; when they arrived in Detention, they were greeted warmly by the Corporal sitting at the security desk.

“Poe! Glad to see you back!” he said. “And you’re Finn, right?”

Poe walked to the desk, put his hands on it and leaned over, smiling.

“Colonel Lexde wants the detainee.”

The Corporal looked confused.

“I don’t know, Poe; nothing’s come down from command...”

“Look,” Poe leaned closer, as if what he was about to say was secret, “We’re sure we can convince the Sith to cooperate but... for the General’s sake… the Colonel wants to keep it *quiet*. Know what I mean?”

“I… well, all right,” the Corporal started to rise from his seat, “He’s in 14...”

“Stay put,” Poe waved him back cheerfully, “We can handle it.”

 

When the cell door slid open, they found Dar Noaa standing there; the yellow glow in his eyes told them that they were not who he was expecting.

“Don’t just stand there,” Finn whispered loudly, “Come on!”

The Sith studied them both for a second, then walked to the door.

“What is this?” he asked.

“We’re rescuing you.”

“Does the General know about this?”

“She’s waiting in the ship.”

“The vessel…” Dar Noaa saw the problem instantly, “… how are we going to...”

“We have to go right now,” Finn cut him off, “I’ll tell you when we get there.”

And to Finn’s surprise, Dar Noaa stopped talking and starting walking.

 

They strode through the Transport with their heads held high, two Resistance fighters escorting a detainee to see the Colonel. Everyone they passed greeted them enthusiastically; they greeted everyone back, but kept moving.

No one suspected a thing, until their luck ran out.

Back in the Showers, their ‘escort’ had finally come to the realization that they were no longer there, and reported to his superiors that he had misplaced them. He suggested weakly that they probably were on their way to the cafeteria for something to eat and some socializing. Security put out a routine ‘locate’ order, but the cafeteria reported no sighting, then the main hanger bay reported no sighting, then medical reported no sighting. On and on it went, until someone reported they’d just passed them in the corridor...

They almost made it; they’d just passed through the auxiliary hanger entry door when the security alarms went off.

“*Run*!” Poe shouted as he sped up, leaving the other behind. “They’ll look here first!”

Finn’s leg ached as he started to follow; he stopped when he realized that Dar Noaa’s back injury might be a problem, too, which it was. Dar Noaa was moving, but not fast enough.

“Hurry!” He shouted, then ran back.

“Leave me behind!” Dar Noaa barked at him. “Take Leia and *go*!”

Finn didn’t move; the devotion in Dar Noaa’s voice held him in place like an anchor. After a lifetime spent being alone among many, Finn couldn’t bear the thought of leaving him behind. Dar Noaa was family now; he was...

“I never got to know my father...”

The words were completely unexpected and filled with undeniable affection; touched to a depth he didn’t even know he possessed, Dar Noaa put his hands onto Finn’s shoulders.

“Your father would be *proud*,” he said, then confirmed the bond. “I certainly am.”

“This is goodbye.”

“Yes.”

Finn raised his hand with amazing speed, then focused. Caught off guard, Dar Noaa was unable to resist the incredible power that had just been directed his way.

“You,” Finn said, “will go with Poe now.”

“I will go with Poe now.”

Dar Noaa’s hands dropped from Finn’s shoulder, then hurried away, following Poe to the ship.

Finn waited until he saw the Sith step into the entry and disappear, then he walked back the way he had come and stepped out into the corridor. The security team had just arrived there; his appearance startled them; weapons went up, someone shouted “Put the blaster down – now!”

Finn released his hold on the blaster; as it fell to the floor, his captors’ attention followed it for a split second. That was all he needed; he stepped sideways as if stumbling, slapping his hand against the hanger entry control panel to stop himself. Red sparks of energy flashed from his fingers so fast no one saw it, and the control panel went dark. He jerked his hand back, shaking it furiously too fight off the sting.

Then they were on him; he offered no resistance as they dragged him away.

….

 

Not far away, inside the Visitor, in Leia’s quarters, the vigil was suddenly interrupted when Rey gasped and looked at her hands. At the same time, Ren opened his eyes.

“Finn!” Rey whimpered.

“Yes,” Ren flexed his fingers, then looked to his mother. “Something’s happened.”

“You two stay in here,” Leia instructed as she got to her feet, “I’ll go find out what.”

As she closed the entry door behind her, Leia looked back just in time to see them reaching for one another’s hands.

….

 

In the Visitor cockpit, Poe was already in the pilot seat, fingers moving swiftly to speed through the launch command sequence. Now everything depended on BB8 getting the outer doors open and the forcefield down.

“Are you ready, Na?” he shouted.

Dar Na was half-in the service bay with BB8, making sure the cable attached to the little droid was firmly locked in place, because as BB8 was opening the bay to space, the Visitor would already be in motion and the only way BB8 could make the trip with them was by being dragged along behind on that cable.

He pulled himself back, out of the service bay and sealed it; the whoosh of the bay’s outer panel, then the hum of the cable unwinding told him that BB8 was already out and on its way.

“The droid is out!” he shouted.

He got to his feet and turned to head back to the cockpit, but stopped when he saw Dar Noaa and Lady Vader in the corridor, blocking his way. She had her hands on his arms and was looking at him intently, but he wasn’t talking to her; he wasn’t doing anything. Dar Na forgot everything else and went to see what was wrong.

“Noah?” Leia was shaking him, “Noah?”

A second passed, then he blinked his eyes.

“Leia,” he smiled at her, “I was just...”

“Just what?”

“I don’t know.”

 

Alone in the cockpit, Poe was oblivious to everything but the waveform display.

“Talk to me, Viz!”

“Elevation, one meter,” the ship replied, “turning; sixty-eight degrees, seventy degrees...”

“Where’s BB8?”

“BB8 is accessing the panel. One-twenty degrees… Poe?”

“What?”

“Microseconds *matter*. Let me do this.”

Viz was right; the ship could do this all much faster than he could, and much better, too. It was torture to give up control, but Poe lifted his hands from the waveform. The display remained, but it was a blur now; Viz and BB8 communicated electronically using the code the ship taught the little droid the first time they encountered each other. The Transport control panel accepted BB8 without question; it depressurized the bay, unlocked and then opened the doors and then turned off the forcefield just as the departing ship reached it. The Visitor slipped outside, taking BB8 with it.

They were out.

Poe tapped the waveform to retract the cable and get BB8 on board, threw his hands in the air and flopped victoriously against the back of his his seat.

“We did it, Finn!"

Silence.

Poe turned and looked; he was alone.

He could hear General Organa’s voice coming from the corridor, so he figured they were all still there for some reason; and Dar Na had told him the code, so it didn’t matter that he had no audience. He put his hand on the waveform.

“BB8 secure.” Viz reported.

“Kourin.”

Executing the command instantly, the ship jumped into hyperspace; they were away.

Poe lingered only long enough to confirm the jump, then went to find out why everyone was still in the corridor.

…………...

 

Aboard the Transport, Rolan Lexde was watching as his bridge crew tried bravely to act like they meant it. They followed orders, but only after side looks and mumbled comments that he could not quite hear, but understood completely.

“There’s the jump, sir,” one reported from his station. “We’ve lost them.”

“That's it, then,” Lexde replied calmly. “Tell the X-wings to stand down.”

“Yes, sir.”

The news from the auxiliary hanger was not good, either.

“The control panel circuits,” the voice from the comlink reported, “are all *melted*, sir.”

“How long to repair it?” Lexde asked.

“With what we have on hand here?” The voice from the comlink replied, “I’d estimate... forever.”

Lexde sighed loudly.

“Anything else?” he asked.

“Yes, sir,” another voice came from the bridge crew, “Do you want to notify CT?”

“Not yet.”

 

…………

Hyperspace.

 

After a brief, but fierce, struggle, Poe Dameron was sitting in the pilot’s seat. Dar Na had placed himself between Poe and the waveform, and now was looming over the distraught pilot to keep him there.

“I’m sorry, Poe,” Leia the General apologized, “we can’t go back for him. You know that.”

Poe glared up at her with wild, desperate eyes, but saw the resolve in hers and almost collapsed back against the seat.

“I left him behind.”

“No,” Leia corrected him, “He chose to stay behind so we could escape; he did it for all of us. It’s not your fault; it’s not anyone’s fault.”

“I left him behind.”

Still in a fog, Dar Noaa was standing behind Leia, confused and trying to understand what had just happened.

“We left someone behind?” He asked.

“Finn,” Leia turned around, hoping that his question was a sign he was finally coming out of the trance-like state she’d found him in. “He stayed behind to hold them back so we could escape.”

“Finn...” Dar Noaa’s memory slowly started to come back. “I told him... to leave *me* behind… and then...”

The look on his face changed from confusion to alarm; Leia went to him and took hold of his hands.

“Don’t force it, Noah,” she advised gently, “I think Finn pushed you.”

It was a few seconds before he realized what she was telling him, then he let out an angry, embarrassed breath and shook his head.

“What will happen to him?”

“I don’t know,” Leia replied.

 

………

 

In another part of the galaxy, aboard the Resistance Transport, word of the escape, now known as the ‘kidnapping’, spread quickly, but details like how and why were few. Everyone expressed alarm because that was expected, but even as the words were coming out of their mouths, subtle glances and small gestures told another story entirely.

No one was outraged; a few didn’t even seem surprised...

 

Rolan Lexde had retreated to the sanctuary of his office to determine what his next move should be when the comlink brought him another surprise.

“Sir,” the voice coming over it was slow and cautious, “We’ve just received a request for permission to come aboard.”

“*Already*?” Lexde asked.

“It’s *not* CT, sir,” the voice replied nervously, “It’s Luke Skywalker and the Millennium Falcon.”

Lexde’s thoughts lifted instantly from grim probability to hopeful possibility.

“Permission granted.” Lexde had no time to waste on protocol; CT was famously precise and they would be arriving within the hour. “I will greet him personally.”

“Yes, sir.”

 

By the time Lexde arrived in the main hanger, the Falcon was already on the floor, its ramp extended and the Jedi walking from it toward him, as if he’d known the Colonel was coming. They met halfway; an empty section in the hanger that was surrounded by noisy activity that served to isolate it from listening ears.

“Welcome back,” Lexde said. “We weren’t expecting you.”

“I’m here to see my sister,” Luke replied tersely. “Where is she?”

“She was here, but there’s been an... incident,” Lexde chose the word carefully. “The ship she arrived on left unexpectedly and now we can’t find her. We’re sure that she was… taken... by the Sith.”

“Taken by the Sith?"

“We had to detain him,” Lexde lowered his voice, “orders from the Emergency Council; there’s a CT on the way here right now. The Sith knew he was in trouble; how he did it, we don’t know, but he’s gone; so is the ship, one of our best pilots and the General.”

Luke didn’t reply; no questions, just an expectant look. Lexde noticed.

“One of our people who was traveling with them was able to get off the ship before it left,” Lexde’s tone changed, becoming more personal. “We’re holding him for questioning by CT when they get here,” he paused to make sure he was getting his message across, then added, “and they will get here *soon*.”

“May I see this detainee?”

“Yes,” Lexde’s face brightened, “He’s not being cooperative at all and I would welcome your assistance."

…

 

Threepio was on a mission.

Just out of storage, the aged protocol droid had expected to be in service to General Organa as always, but she was gone and in the excitement that followed, no one cared about him. A droid without purpose was nothing at all, so Threepio determined it was necessary to find another purpose until the General could be found, but at the moment, the Resistance had little need for a protocol droid.

And so, he was wandering aimlessly around the ship when, by sheer chance, he overheard an announcement that the Millennium Falcon had docked successfully in the main hanger.

The main hanger bay was always busy, so nobeing took notice when Threepio waddled in looking for the Millenium Falcon. He pestered everyone he encountered for directions to the ship’s location, getting grunts and gestures, some of them rude, that pointed out the way until finally, he arrived there and found its ramp extended and the entry itself open, inviting him in.

Chewbacca was in the cockpit, hurrying through his pre-flight checklist with R2D2’s assistance when Threepio found them there and greeted him much too joyfully.

“*Chewbacca*!”

Totally startled, the Wookie roared, twisted around, swinging one of his long arms in self-defense and coming very close to striking the droid’s head off before recognizing him.

“Well!,” Threepio wailed, “I’m sorry I frightened you – but you don’t have to take my head off for it.”

R2D2 warbled a greeting, followed by a stream of electronic information.

“Shut up and go sit down? But I just got here.”

R2D2 repeated itself, this time ending with a sound that resembled an angry snort.

“Oh, all right, then,” Threepio whined, then muttered to himself as he waddled back toward the communal room, “I’ll just go sit down… and wait… always waiting...”

“Another mouth to feed,” Chewbacca purred.

R2D2 beeped.

Then they resumed the task at hand; they had to be ready to leave the moment Luke got back.

…..

 

In the Transport’s Detention Unit, Finn was coming to terms with what he had done.

He knew he’d made the right choice; Dar Noaa mattered much more than a First Order deserter, and the knowledge that he and General Organa got away safely made whatever he had to face for his part in it worthwhile. It was a strange new feeling for him; his gladness for their escape was matched by loneliness and longing to be with them.

Perhaps this was *love*.

Poe said one day he’d start to understand what love was all about.

And there was something else; he was alone now. For the first time since the Goazon, he couldn’t feel Ren and Rey; their absence ached in his head.

He was sitting in the holding cell, lost in something close to despair when the cell door slid open and he looked up and saw Luke Skywalker there. At first, Finn was sure he was hallucinating; but then the Jedi Master walked over and sat beside him.

“Master Luke? How did you get here?”

“I could ask you the same thing.”

“We were in trouble,” Finn kept it short. “The family; are they safe?”

“Yes.”

“Good.”

“Why didn’t you go with them?” Luke asked.

“We ran out of time,” Finn’s leg ached; he rubbed it gingerly. “Somebody had to stay behind to make sure the rest got away.”

“What happened to your leg?”

“That,” Finn straightened the leg out slowly, then eased it back, “is a very long story.”

“In that case,” Luke stood up, “we’ll save it for the trip."

“What?”

“Stand up.”

Obeying without question, Finn got to his feet. Luke reached over with his living hand and took hold of Finn’s wrist, gave him a mischievous grin, then winked at him.

But before Finn could ask about it, they vanished from the cell.

 

………...

 

Rolan Lexde was on the bridge when the Millennium Falcon requested permission to depart.

“The pilot says,” the communications mate on duty read the translation slowly because Wookie was difficult even for the ship’s language program, “their batteries are recharged and they have another engorgement, no, *engagement* waiting.”

“I’m sure they do,” Lexde replied. “Permission granted.”

 

It was sometime later that word came from Detention that the detainee Finn or the Jedi Master were no longer in the holding cell.

“Look for them,” Lexde commanded casually, “Search everywhere. And be *thorough*; take your time about it.”

The little corporal, who was hovering nearby waiting for orders, decided she could wait no longer; she sidled up to him, but hesitated until he noticed her there before speaking.

“Sir,” she asked, “what’s going to happen when CT gets here?”

“I expect they will be sorely disappointed, Corporal,” Lexde answered, then he saw the stricken look on the girl’s face. “They will demand an investigation, of course, but don’t worry, we will get get to the bottom of this mystery," he gave her a confident, reassuring look, "…eventually.”

Rolan Lexde smiled. He was career military; he knew how to make that investigation take as long as his auxiliary hanger door repair was going to take. Maybe longer. There was an element of risk in doing that, but risk was a small thing compared to knowing that hope was still out there somewhere.

The time would come when he would need it.

 

………

 

Hyperspace.

 

Poe Dameron was inconsolable.

Nothing Leia said helped; neither did Dar Noaa’s words. Finn was lost; by now he would be be a prisoner of CT, and they would torture him until he was either broken or dead.

“I should have told him,” he was talking softly, as if to himself. “I just couldn’t.”

Showing surprising sympathy, Dar Na leaned over and patted his head, but said nothing.

“We’ll get him *back*,” Leia offered what she could, even if it wasn’t much, “as soon as we can, we’ll contact the Resistance; maybe we can trade the data from the Finalizer for him.” She glanced at Dar Noaa, who nodded his agreement. “I can’t make any promises, but I think they’d be eager to make that deal.”

“ **Finn is safe.”**

The new voice in the conversation startled them all; they hadn’t noticed the movement at the entry behind them.

It was Ren. Rey was with him; her arms were out and ready, but she wasn’t supporting him; he was standing on his own.

“How do you know?” Leia asked.

“He’s on the Millennium Falcon,” Ren replied, “Uncle Luke has him.”

Poe’s sigh of relief was so deep, he almost fainted, but Dar Na kept him from falling out of the seat. Dar Noaa was visibly relieved, too, but Leia wasn’t paying attention; from the moment she saw her son standing there, she saw nothing else. It was all she could do to keep herself from rushing over to hug him.

“Did you walk all this way on your own?” she asked.

“He did.” Rey replied.

Rey answered before he could; Ren made that little face Ben would always make when he was feeling self-conscious about something. Leia knew that face so well! Her son didn’t understand how huge a small thing like seeing one’s child walking without help could be.

 _But,_ Leia thought _, that day is coming._

 

Realizing she’d just stepped on Ren’s moment, Rey made an effort to set things right by reminding him that there was more to say.

“Tell her,” she urged him, “the *rest* of Master Luke’s message.”

“He said 'Keep going,” Ren almost smiled as he told her, “'I'm right behind you'.”

Unable to hold back any longer, Leia went to him, but she stopped short of touching him when she saw how he stiffened in anticipation. Rey moved to put her arm around his back for support, but he he waved her off.

“I’ll go back now,” he told her; his meaning was clear; he was tiring, but he did not want help.

“May I walk with you?” Leia asked.

He froze for a second; his first reaction was fear, something Leia knew now. She waited patiently while he struggled with it because she knew how tremendously difficult, but so important, each little victory he had over that fear was. Neither the monster nor the hero that was Kylo Ren had ever faced such a test - *this* would be the fight of Ben’s Solo’s life.

“I’d like that,” he replied with the tiniest of grins, “very much.”

Another little victory; there would be many more to come, because he was a fighter.

But she’d known that all along.

 

…...

 

Hyperspace.

The journey to the Edge of the galaxy was a long one, even outside real space. As hours became days, the crew of the Visitor made the best of it.

Poe was on watch; the solitude gave him time to think.

Dar Na was asleep on Finn’s platform; he’d moved in with Poe to keep him company and to make space available in the Sith quarters.

Leia and Dar Noaa were in the Sith quarters studying charts and making plans; they spent a great deal of time in there, mostly getting to know one another in every way possible.

And in Leia’s old quarters, Rey was finishing off what was left uneaten in Ren’s bowl.

She dimmed the light, then slipped onto the floor beside Ren, who was lying on his back, asleep. It felt a little cool to her, so she reached up and pulled a blanket from the platform and covered him with it.

He turned onto his side, toward her, then reached over, put his arm around her waist and pulled her under the blanket.

“Are you cold?” Rey whispered.

“No.”

“Are you asleep?’

“Yes.”

“Are you dreaming?”

“I *must* be.”

The pleasure in his voice made her flush; she was glad his eyes were closed so he wouldn’t see it and she didn’t have to hide her smile as snuggled against him.

He moved as she did, putting them face to face. Then he kissed her.

It was a gentle kiss; his lips were barely touching hers, as if he was unsure of what to do, so she helped by kissing him back.

He pulled away and opened his eyes, searching for something in hers. She met his gaze fearlessly, then followed, moving as he did, catching up and then kissing him boldly, showing him there was nothing to fear. Then she pulled away; easing herself to the floor, settling onto her back, inviting him to follow.

He did follow; he flowed onto her; a lean thigh draped over hers and a knee glided down between hers, parting her legs. He kissed her mouth, then her neck, and then he discovered how easily the tunic slipped off her shoulder so he could kiss that, too.

She let him explore; it was only fair; she’d had her chance back on Dagobah.

When the tunic resisted further exploration, he found that it had two sets of ties; each surrendered to a single tug. And once he’d freed her of it, he explored with his fingers and then his mouth; she rewarded each discovery with little sounds and movements that all meant yes.

One discovery led to another, and another after that...

 

……...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANK YOU, SUBSCRIBERS, for coming aboard and staying with me. Your support made this story happen!! It became a bigger project than I expected, but in the end, I’m kinda proud of it.
> 
> Everyone else; Thank you, too, for dropping by! I would really appreciate hearing from you, even if it’s only a “Hi”.
> 
> And everyone, everywhere: let’s all hope we won’t be needing therapy again after Disney hits us with "The Last Jedi". It's almost time to assume crash positions...
> 
> and.... Episode 9:SKYWALKERS has started.
> 
> -JR


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Subscribers,
> 
> Someone suggested I post a “promo” for my new story, “SKYWALKERS”, and that’s what this is. If you’ve *already* checked it out, THANK YOU! 
> 
> If not, take a peek...

...

 

Suddenly Luke bolted.

Leaving the young men behind, he ran ahead, into the center of the village, then he stopped and just stood there. Alarmed, they caught up to him quickly, and at first, they didn’t see anything but the Jedi Master.

But then they became aware of what was surrounding them.

Not far from their feet, what seemed like bench logs in the shadows as they ran past became bodies. Instantly, Finn, Poe and Dar Na formed a shield around Luke, who seemed frozen by the sight, and drew their weapons to defend themselves. They stayed that way for several minutes, scanning the village in all directions, but nothing happened.

“Whoever did this,” Luke’s voice crackled with restrained rage, “is gone now. Look for survivors, check everyone.”

That’s what they did; Luke stayed in the center of the village keeping watch while the others went from body to body, home to home. As the minutes ticked by, their silence confirmed what Luke already knew.

Dead. All of them.

Then the sounds of the searchers’ reactions told Luke another story; Poe staggering from a doorway to vomit; Dar Na mumbling curses and then prayers in Sith; Finn muffling a sob with his hand. They returned to Luke with heads lowered, hands shaking...

…  
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10248782/chapters/22724699

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't know if that link will work   
> And OMG!!! Streaming "Star Wars Celebration" live on Youtube and they showed "The Last Jedi" trailer!!! It looks great!!!

**Author's Note:**

> I started this for the fun of it. I'll finish it for Carrie.


End file.
